The desire to climb has been one of man's most elemental compulsions for centuries. In earlier times, people went into the mountains because of need, whether to explore, to search for food, or to find new lands to settle. No matter what the reason, mountains and cliffs have always presented extreme risk to those who are climbing higher and higher. Today people climb for sport, for physical fitness, and as a personal challenge. To many alpine and expedition climbers, this means trying to reach the summits of the world's highest mountains, a task that often takes them above 25,000 feet--a place all climbers know as the "death zone."

The Greatest Climbing Stories ever Told follows people into the mountains and describes some of the epic adventures that have culminated in disaster or near disaster--from the continuing mystery of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, who may or may not have been the first to reach the summit of Mt. Everest before they disappeared in 1924, to the story of three middle-aged women from California who decided they wanted to climb a mountain, only to be caught in a horrifying avalanche on Washington's Mt. Rainier. Readers will learn about the nature of a true climbing expedition, where climbers spend up to two months slowly making their way up a majestic mountain into the thinning atmosphere of the death zone. They will also come to know the personalities of the mountains themselves, from Everest and K2 to Kanchenjunga and Makalu, and many other peaks where people continue to climb onward and upward, seeking fresh challenge and adventure.