High and wild places have dominated Stephen Venables' life and now he has written a full autobiography which explores how and - more importantly - why he became a mountaineer, and reveals a series of never-recorded adventures on four continents. At its climax he revisits his dramatic success without oxygen on the Kangshung Face of Everest, described by Reinhold Messner as the most adventurous in Everest's history and by Lord Hunt as 'one of the most remarkable ordeals from which men or women have...

From the challenge of climbing Everest, to the cloud-shrouded mystery of the Mont Blanc, mountains have always exerted a pull on our hearts and minds. In this beautiful tribute to some of the world's most stunning landscapes, climbers, walkers, historians and journalists provide accounts of some of the greatest feats of human endurance, fascinating tales and intriguing facts about some of Earth's most interesting mountains. Each mountain holds its own challenges, history and spiritual significance...