This stunning volume highlights the best of mountaineering history with striking color photos and illuminating text. A collector’s book for climbers and armchair adventurers Large-format, full-color pictorials of the world’s highest peaks Vast fields of ice and slender limestone towers, slim crests of snow and massive granite columns. From Everest to Mont Blanc, from Patagonia to the Dolomites, the highest and most impressive peaks on earth have always challenged and attracted humans. With a blend of dramatic color photographs, historical black-and-white images, and early paintings and illustrations of the world’s most illustrious peaks, this large-format volume brings together the greatest adventures that have been undertaken in the mountains since the ancient Greeks made their first forays to Mount Olympus. All the biggest names in climbing-and the highest mountains-are here. In illustrating the adventures of such climbers as Mummery, the Duke of the Abruzzi, Bonatti, and Messner, this lavish volume also reveals that now, as always, the primary elements in any attempt on the most difficult peaks are the individual’s courage, intelligence, and fear.