New York or London, 1974, 1st edition. 164 pp, b/w photos. Hardcover with dust jacket. Near Fine to Fine.
Almost 50 years ago Reinhold Messner set forth his philosophy in this, his first book. Chris Bonington says of him, "What has given him the edge over everyone is creative imagination. There is a wall called impossible that the great mass of people in every field face. Then one person who's got kind of extra imaginative drive jumps that wall. That's Reinhold Messner."
This is one of the scarcest of Messner's books in English. It is Messner's first book in English. It's a collection of Messner's difficult solo climbs interspersed with his commentary on style, technique, philosophy, training, etc. It winds up with a brief chapter on the 1970 Rupal Face Nanga Parbat expedition, mainly discussing the physical training in preparation for the expedition. Messner's climbing record is phenomenal. He was the first person to climb the fourteen 'official' 8000m peaks: Shisha Pangma, Nanga Parbat, Everest, Kangchenjunga, Dhaulagiri, Cho Oyu, Makalu, Broad Peak, Hidden Peak, Gasherbrum 2, K2, Annapurna, Lhotse, and Manaslu.
