WHITE LADDER: TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY/ MOUNTAINEERING (PB)

Incan priests scaled the Andes to pay tribute to each mountain's 'Great Lord', travelling higher than any European would for centuries. Gurkha riflemen looked at the distant summits of Broad Peak and K2 with gleeful anticipation. Tweed-clad mountaineers who made the first serious assaults on Everest hauled yards of battered rope through the snow. From the ashy slopes of the sacred volcano Llullaillaco to the icy crags and crevasses of the Karakoram, this is a journey through the peaks of the world, and of human achievement.