The story of Nanga Parbat is long and multifaceted. It was often personified as implacable and unapproachable. Attempts to climb it were made as early as the 19th century. Between the First and Second World Wars it was named the 'mountain of destiny for the Germans' and abused by National Socialist propaganda. The best mountaineers lost their lives in large numbers. In the 1950s, the decade of the first ascents of 8,000m peaks, "Nanga" also fell. Its first climber, the unforgettable Hermann Buhl, would have celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024. This story from a long-forgotten time up to the days of modern mountaineering is dedicated to him.

What does it take to be one of the world's best high-altitude mountain climbers? A lot of fundraising; traveling in some of the world's most dangerous countries; enduring cold bivouacs, searing lungs, and a cloudy mind when you can least afford one. It means learning the hard lessons the mountains teach. Steve House built his reputation on ascents throughout the Alps, Canada, Alaska, the Karakoram and the Himalaya that have expanded possibilities of style, speed, and difficulty. In 2005 Steve and alpinist Vince Anderson pioneered a direct new route on the Rupal Face of 26,600-foot Nanga Parbat, which had never before been climbed in alpine style. It was the third ascent of the face and the achievement earned Steveand Vince the first Piolet d"or (Golden Ice Axe) awarded to North Americans. Steve is an accomplished and spellbinding storyteller in the tradition of Maurice Herzog and Lionel Terray. Beyond the Mountain is a gripping read destined to be a mountain classic. And it

Survival comes at a price In The Escapist, one of Canada’s foremost mountaineers, Gabriel Filippi, shares a life spent in and out of the Death Zone and proves an old axiom true: no climber returns from a summit the same person as when he began his ascent. The Escapist is an unflinching account of extreme feats and devastating loss that takes you to six continents as Filippi dissects both what it takes to get to the top of the world, and what that quest takes out of you. Over the course of twenty years spent scaling the world’s highest peaks, Filippi has repeatedly cheated death. From a Taliban attack on a mountainside in northern Pakistan that felled ten of his climbing companions to the deadliest disaster in Everest’s history, Filippi has survived again and again. A story about human perseverance and triumph in the pursuit of one man’s dreams, The Escapist helps to explain why some people will never give up on trying to climb to the top of the world.

The essays in this book were originally published as a special issue of Representations (summer 1997, No. 59)

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