London, 1959, 1st UK edition. 312 pp, b/w illustrations. Blue cloth hardcover with dust jacket. Near Fine to Fine.
Describes Harrer's first ascent of the Eiger Nordwand in 1938 with Anderl Heckmair, Luwig Vorg and Fritz Kasparek which electrified the climbing world, and still arouses awe. One of the greatest mountaineering books, and climbs, of all time.
Heinrich Harrer became the most famous of the original four from the Eiger climb. 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 consummate 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 traveled 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 and Mount Deborah in Alaska with Fred Beckey in 1954, and Ausangate (6400m) in Peru's Cordillera Vilcanota in 1953.
