Mostly Mischief Paperback

Harold William 'Bill' Tilman (1898-1977) was among the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering mountaineer and sailor who held exploration above all else. Tilman joined the army at seventeen and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery during WWI. After the war Tilman left for Africa, establishing himself as a coffee grower. He met Eric Shipton and began their famed mountaineering partnership, traversing Mount Kenya and climbing Kilimanjaro. Turning to the Himalaya, Tilman went on two Mount Everest expeditions, reaching 27,000 feet without oxygen in 1938. In 1936 he made the first ascent of Nanda Devi - the highest mountain climbed until 1950. He was the first European to climb in the remote Assam Himalaya, he delved into Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor and he explored extensively in Nepal, all the while developing a mountaineering style characterised by its simplicity and emphasis on exploration. It was perhaps logical then that Tilman would eventually buy the pilot cutter Mischief - not with the intention of retiring from travelling, but to access remote mountains. For twenty-two years Tilman sailed Mischief and her successors to Patagonia, where he crossed the vast ice cap, and to Baffin Island to make the first ascent of Mount Raleigh. He made trips to Greenland, Spitsbergen and the South Shetlands, before disappearing in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1977.

Foreword - Roger D. Taylor


Part one: Bylot Island, Baffin Bay


I Plans and Preparations


II To Godthaab


III To Upernivik


IV Baffin Bay


V Bylot Island


VI Pond Inlet


VII Homeward Bound


Part two: east Greenland


VIII The Objective and the Crew


IX To the Faeroe Islands


X Surtsey and Reykjavik


XI Angmagssalik


XII Homeward Bound


Part three: Heard Island, Southern Ocean


XIII Fitting Out


XIV To Albany


XV To Kerguelen


XVI Heard Island and Port aux Franais


XVII Port Jeanne d'Arc, Heard Island and Sydney


Part four: East Greenland, Return Engagement


XVIII To Iceland


XIX Reykjavik and Angmagssalik


XX Skjoldungen and Homewards


Afterword: Tilman and Patanela-Outward Bound, 1964 - Philip Temple