• Loretan is often credited with bringing fast-and-light style to the highest mountains
• New foreword by bestselling writer David Roberts
On October 5, 1995, Erhard Loretan became the third person to climb all fourteen 8000-meter peaks, and the second to climb them without supplemental oxygen. He also became one of only a handful of individuals to climb Everest via the Hornbein Couloir; he and Jean Troillet completed the roundtrip climb in only 43 hours.
An influential climber, Loretan's story has never before been told in English. He writes with humor, often deprecating his own accomplishments, and he is shockingly honest: On Cho Oyu, for instance, his climbing partner, Pierre-Alain Steiner, fell hundreds of meters. Loretan called out to what he assumed would be a corpse. Unexpectedly, Steiner called back. Loretan writes, knowing that what he is about to share is terrible, that he felt no joy on hearing his friend's voice because rescue was impossible in so remote a place.
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