Book cover of Of Walking in Ice: Munich-Paris, 23 November-14 December 1974

Book description

In late November 1974, filmmaker Werner Herzog received a phone call from Paris delivering some terrible news. German film historian, mentor, and close friend Lotte Eisner was seriously ill and dying. Herzog was determined to prevent this and believed that an act of walking would keep Eisner from death. He…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Of Walking in Ice as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Few have explored the extremes of outdoor life further than Bavarian filmmaker Werner Herzog. As Herzog himself has said: "Every man should pull a boat over a mountain once in his life."

Over more than 70 films he explores man’s (it’s usually men) magnificent, obsessive behaviour in the outdoors: Grizzly Man, Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre Wrath of God, Dark Glow of the Mountains (about Reinhold Messner). And he's written up his own long distance walk: Munich to Paris, in Winter conditions and unsuitable shoes.

For me the best book on walking is by the German film director Werner Herzog.

In 1974 Herzog was told that his friend, the film historian Lotte Eisner, was dying. In what can perhaps be described as a fugue state Herzog pulled on his boots, grabbed a jacket and compass, and set off on a monumental, almost shamanic, journey from his home in Munich to her deathbed in Paris, believing his act of walking would keep her alive.

The journey took three weeks and Herzog walked through the thick of winter. On arrival, Eisner had already recovered. Of Walking in…

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