The Mammoth Book of On The Edge

No one sees clearer than an individual whose life is hanging by the fingertips on the edge of an abyss. Probing the furthest reaches of human daring and endurance, here are 28 of the great first-hand accounts of extreme mountaineering, from legendary names.

Featuring Heinrich Harrer, first conqueror of the notorious Eigerwand; Robert Bates' classic account of the ill-fated American 1953 expedition to K2; Maurice Herzog's unstoppable ascent of Annapurna at the cost of frostbite; Walter Bonatti on the tragedy at the Central Pillar of Freney on Mont Blanc; George Leigh Mallory surviving an avalanche on the 1922 Everest expedition; Rene Desmaison's epic story of 14 days stuck on The Grandes Jorasses in winter; and Jon Krakauer recalling his solo ascent of The Devil's Thumb in Alaska.

The price of the summit is often measured in human suffering, yet for those who succeed the rewards can be incalculable. Nerve-wracking and unputdownable.