Germany, 2002. 571 pp, color and b/w photos. In German. This is Harrer's latest and perhaps last book (although he is so prolific, with about 20 titles to his credit, that one never knows. A new edition of a guide to his Museum was being delivered as I was meeting with him!). This is Harrer's life story and we bought a few copies for collectors or German readers who would like a copy. Harrer said that an English translation is planned (no word yet), but we thought we had better get some copies signed while we had the chance. Harrer told us that for a while this book and the Dalai Lama's book were in competition for being the best selling book in Germany, which he found quite amusing! (The only books he sells at his museum shop are his own, and the Dalai Lama's!) DJ, New. SIGNED by Heinrich Harrer. .
Heinrich Harrer became the most famous of the original four from the Eiger climb. He is now in his nineties. After the Eiger climb he joined a 1939 expedition to Nanga Parbat, a reconnaissance, but was arrested by the British in Pakistan once WWII started. His escape from the prison camp to Tibet and subsequent life with the young Dalai Lama led to his famous book, Seven Years In Tibet.
Harrer went on to become a consumate explorer and adventurer, much like Lowell Thomas, Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman, but Harrer didn't limit his travels to mountains. Highly appreciative of native culture, Harrer travelled the world to remote mountains and jungles to experience the untouched civilizations. His adventures include trips to remote Amazon jungle tribes, Pacific Islands, remote Himalaya, and New Guinea where he and Philip Temple made the first ascent of Carstensz Pyramid, one of the Seven Summits [Denali, Everest, Vinson, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, Carstensz or Kosciusko].
Other notable mountaineering first ascents by Heinrich Harrer were Mount Hunter & Mount Deborah in Alaska with Fred Beckey in 1954 and Ausangate (6400m) in Peru's Cordillera Vilcanota in 1953.
