The Big Walls: From the North Face of the Eiger to the South Face of Dhaulagirl

by Reinhold Messner

The Big Walls are the royal discipline in mountaineering terms. They embody all the things that make climbing what it is - size, scale, difficulty, exposure, remoteness, and the reduction of equipment to a minimum. Challenging walls can be found the world in the Himalayas, the Karakorum, the Alps, South America, Alaska, and the Caucasus.
Here, world famous mountaineer Reinhold Messner looks at the history of big wall climbing and presents detailed information on fifty walls, with the intention of showing a new generation of climbers where the big challenges and remaining climbing problems may be encountered. Messner's aim is to make the broader public aware of the true nature of mountaineering, which is not merely slogging up Mount Everest, but is being self-reliant with the minimum of equipment on a difficult mountain face at the end of the world.
Illustrated throughout with stunning photographs, this book is inspirational as well as informative and is essential reading for climbers, mountaineers, and all those interested in adventure travel.

Genres: Mountaineering, Nonfiction, Adventure

216 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Reinhold Messner (born September 17, 1944) is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from South Tyrol, often cited as the greatest mountain climber of all time. He is renowned for making the first solo ascents of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen and for being the first climber to ascend all fourteen "eight-thousanders" (peaks over 8,000 metres above sea level). He is the author of at least 63 books (in German, 1970–2006), many of which have been translated into other languages.