From the New York Times bestselling author of Is a River Alive? and Underland, a soaring blend of cultural history, meditation, and memoir about the mysteries of the world’s highest places and our unending quest for the summit

"Wonderfully illuminating.” —Los Angeles Times • “Fascinating.” —The New York Times Book Review

For those who love mountains, their wonder is beyond dispute. But for many, their allure is beyond reason; their extraordinary beauty offset by the immense risks involved in climbing them. In this groundbreaking and now classic work, Robert Macfarlane answers the enduring ‘why’ of mountaineering. He explores how mountains have come to grip the Western imagination and hold so many of us spellbound, drawing us up into the high places—sometimes at the cost of our lives.

Braiding history, geology, human stories, and glittering accounts of his own journeys in high, wild landscapes from the Rockies to the Himalayas, Macfarlane unfurls the mysteries and passions of mountaineering’s imaginative evolution. His account begins in the mid-1700s, when a fascination for mountains was sparked by the work of both poets and scientists in Europe. It ends with a vivid re-creation of George Mallory’s three, ill-fated expeditions in the 1920s, as Mallory sought to be the first to summit Mt. Everest.

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (July 13, 2004)
• ISBN-13: 978-0375714061