The Will to Climb - by Ed Viesturs & David Roberts (Paperback)

About the Book

The bestselling author of "No Shortcuts to the Top" and "K2" chronicles his three attempts to climb the world's 10th-highest and statistically deadliest peak in the Himalaya, while exploring the dramatic and tragic history of others who have made or attempted the ascent.

Book Synopsis

The bestselling author of The Mountain and No Shortcuts to the Top chronicles his three attempts to climb the world's tenth-highest and statistically deadliest peak while exploring the dramatic and tragic history of others who have made--or attempted--the ascent.

"Viesturs and Roberts have written an exhaustively researched and wonderfully compelling history of the most fascinating and dangerous of the Himalayan giants."--David Breashers, veteran mountaineer and documentary filmmaker, director of IMAX film Everest

As a high school student, Ed Viesturs read and was captivated by the French climber Maurice Herzog's famous and grisly account of the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950. When he began his own campaign to climb the world's fourteen highest peaks in the late 1980s, Viesturs looked forward with trepidation to undertaking Annapurna himself. Two failures to summit in 2000 and 2002 made Annapurna his nemesis. His successful 2005 ascent was the triumphant capstone of his climbing quest.

In The Will to Climb Viesturs and co-author David Roberts bring the extraordinary challenges of Annapurna to vivid life through edge-of-your-seat accounts of the greatest climbs in the mountain's history, and of his own failed attempts and eventual success. In the process Viesturs ponders what Annapurna reveals about some of our most fundamental moral and spiritual questions--questions, he believes, that we need to answer to lead our lives well.

Review Quotes

"The Will to Climb captures the essence and spirit of the great sport of mountaineering. For anyone who loves the outdoors and for those who admire the will of mankind, this book is a must-read."--Tod Leiweke, CEO, Tampa Bay Lightning

"A detailed, nicely told account of a man's endurance and perseverance in achieving a singular goal."--Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Ed Viesturs is the first and only American to ascend all fourteen of the world's 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen.

David Roberts was the author of more than twenty books on mountaineering, adventure, and history, including No Shortcuts to the Top, K2, and The Will to Climb, which he co-wrote with Ed Viesturs and a memoir On The Ridge Between Life and Death. He has written for National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, and Smithsonian. David Roberts passed away in 2021.