New York, 1988, 1st edition. 172 pp, illustrations. Many people consider this the greatest mountaineering book of our generation. This book is an illustrated account of the ascent of the west face of the 21,000ft peak, Siula Grande, in the Peruvian Andes. The author and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, achieved the summit in June 1985 before disaster struck. A few days later, Yates staggered into base camp, exhausted and frostbitten, to tell their non-climbing companion that Joe was dead.