This is one of the most desirable books on Manaslu, one of the 14 first ascents of the 8000-meter peaks. There is no long text telling the expedition's story. The story is told through the photos, which all have captions in English as well as Japanese. The expedition was sponsored by the Mainichi Newspapers, and the book was published by Mainichi as well.
Manaslu is the eighth highest mountain on earth. It is located in the Nepal Himalaya in the Gandaki Section of the Gurkha Himal. The name means mountain of the spirit.
Dhaulagiri is not far away. Dhaulagiri is 8,167 metres, 26,795 ft above sea level, and is the seventh highest peak in the world.
One of the first westerners to explore it was H.W. Tilman in 1950, but his expedition did little more than photograph the mountain since they weren't prepared to climb such a big, remote peak. In 1952 the Japanese made a reconnaissance of the mountain, and then sent big expeditions yearly until finally making the first ascent in 1956.