Messner presents a first-hand and historical perspective of the main big walls in the world's mountains - from Alpine North Faces (Eiger) to Himalian South Faces (Annapurna, Lhotse, Everest). In format and content it is very simular to "All 14 8000's" by the same author. Both are highly recommended.

This is supposed to be a first person account of the first oxygenless ascent of Mt.Everest by one of the two protagonists. However, it is much more as Habeler is a wonderful storyteller. The style is fluid, the anecdotes about his practice runs in the Himalaya with Messner really funny. Habeler is fascinating because he's always precise, captures well the dangers and difficulties of the very high. As the author reveals the success of the expedition from the start, one understands that the suspense doesn't lie in the final outcome, but in the stages, and the action doesn't fail to rebound. One reads the book as a classic thriller, with a good dose of humor, and humanity. This book is an absolute must-read for anyone fascinated by the Everest and Himalayan mystique. It is a wonderful addition to those of you, that maybe like me felt for more after "Into Thin Air" or Hillary's autobiography.

Few mountaneering authors can match Reinhold's ability to describe his own experience and state of mind. Part of this ability must be attributed to his native tongue German, where deep and emotional narratives must be especially long and precise due to the inherent form of the language. But for me this translates to English especially well and I understood (as best as one can understand another's world) all the different emotional states Messner experienced with a rare clarity.

Some may find relating to Messner a bit of a stretch and even be dismissive of his romanticism and general intensity. Personally I can very much relate to his personality and I found insights into his inner nature an invaluable look into someone who has explored the human spirit way beyond what many of us will know. He was, after all, the first to climb Everest solo and completely unassisted from base camp. This is a feat that is becoming harder to repeat due to the increasing popularity of climbing Everest and other 8000m peaks.

The book is essentially a series of excerpts from his most notable climbs (and previous writings), usually with a short abridgement to link each story together. Overall the book Reinhold seems to be using it as a vehicle to not only explain himself put also push his mountaneering philosophy (which I tend to agree with on most points). There is also the occasional excerpt from the diary of his basecamp companions that set the scene nicely (but also seem to make the object of some feminine hero worship at times!)

Absolutely worthwhile read, especially if you want an overview of Messner's major achievements. If you want the detail read the original books of each climb.

In "To The Top of the World", Reinhold Messner not only solidifies his legend as a pioneering mountaineer, he also succedes in translating his innermost feelings and thoughts into words. Messner's tales of his climbing exploits are interspersed with expression of his deep-seated fears and struggles to find meaning in life and death. Messner has clearly been affected by the death of his brother Gunther, and the reader gets the sense that Messner climbs these mountains to exact revenge on the mountains, and himself for his brother's death. Messner himself is constantly drawing the reader into the depths of the human soul on the brink of death. The details of the climbs are broken by the ever-present underlying theme of the profound relationship between mountaineering and life and death. Messner's eloquence and ability to draw on the reader's emotion is sensational. The frequent photographic images, although welcome, almost detract from the spiritual nature of the book. Messner gives the reader the ability to feel the climb and experience the elation and despair that is Himalayan climbing. The one fault I find is in the slick omission of details of his relationship with Nena Holguin. We move from a married Messner, to a single, loving Messner without even a segue in the form of an explanation. Nevertheless, the book is a fabulous read, and a great accomplishment by the prolific Mr. Messner. It is painfully clear that in high altitude mountain climbing, longevity may indeed be decided by fates out of our control, and Mr. Messner is the master of his domain.
Anthony M. Frasca,M.D.

Mr. Messner climbed Mt. Everest solo and without oxygen. On the way he fell into a crevasse and was doomed. Praying and promising God he would go down the mountain, he jumped to a ice shelf not knowing whether it would hold or not. It held and he continued up Everest to the summit. This is just one example of this man's extension of himself beyond all limits expected of mortal man. He was lucky this time, but as he describes in the book, luck was not all on his side. A must read for anyone interested in mountaineering or adventure. Mr. Messner is indeed the greatest mountaineer who ever lived.

If you are curious about what real high-altitude climbing can be all about, you should buy this book. For an arm-chair mountaineer, it has all the ingredients!
More pictures would be nice.

Back in the '70's and early '80's, I eagerly awaited each issue of Mountain Magazine. It was my link to the climbing world. Time after time, a small paragraph or two would appear about another 8,000 meter peak that Messner had summited - all without bottled oxygen, all in exemplary style. The editor of Mountain was no fan of Messners, so the write-ups were overly brief. Still, I knew I was witnessing the work of a master.

This book compiles Reinhold's views on his biggest alpine climbs and still, we are sandbagged. What this man and his partners achieved is difficult to fathom two decades later because his impact has been absorbed into the whole. Before Messner, oxygenless attempts on the big mountains had fallen out of style but now, few world class mountaineers would dare consider it's use. Before Messner, huge seige expeditions were the norm but today, many emulate Reinhold's gutty, stripped down approach and the environment has benefitted. Reinhold is the man !

This is one the best books about mountaineering that I have and I do have a lot of them. It just has it all, about all the 14 eigth-thousanders and Messner's climbs on these mountains.

Lots and lots of excelent easy reading information about the eight-thousanders(historical highlights, geographical informations, technical informations, drawings of the most famous routes, etc); interviews(stories) with some other excelent climbers (Doug Scott, Chris Bonington, Hans Kammerlander, Kurt Diemberg, etc. ); filled with quotations; superb pictures of all the 14 eight-thousanders(really really great pictures - high quality paperprint).

Aside all that you also have some good "short" narrations (stories) about Messner's climbs on all the eight thousanders, some comments about mountaineering, about the critics made toward him, and others aspects of his career. For instance he talks about the death of his brother in Nanga Parbat, about traditional alpine style, about his partners, about solo climbings, about the use of oxygen and about much others subjects(traverses, new routes, human limits, etc). But don't expect to find a detailed, extensive narration about the climbings and I think that is because you would have at least 14 books inside a single book, it would be just to big for printing.

You won't find any other book with the climb stories of the first person(Messner) to climb all 14 and also with great pictures and information about the 14. This is a must have in any moutaineering collection.

Great story, poorly translated, and bogs down in details you may not care about.

Reinhold Messner is clearly one of the great climbers of all time and maybe arguably the greatest. Having climbed all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters by himself without supplemental oxygen, this is the story of the tallest-Everest.

Like good fiction, the story has several dimensions that work together. The three basic themes include: ·The story of the opening of Tibet ·The story of climbing Everest ·The story of a waiting love one

For the pure climbing enthusiast, much of this book is likely to be pretty boring. Approximately half the book is dedicated to the story of obtaining permission to climb Everest on the Tibetan side and his traveling through Tibet on his way to the mountain. Reinhold Messner has a deep love for Tibet and its people. For him this first trip through Tibet was as exciting as the assent of Everest. For someone less interested in this, the first half of the book is excruciating. Interwoven in this section is Messner's political agenda to free Tibet from Chinese domination.

The story of the actual climb is amazing. Undeniably one of the most amazing ascents ever, he climbed Mount Everest, alone, without supplemental oxygen, during the monsoon period! Obviously crazy, the accomplishment is undeniable. What was especially great is getting a sense of what it was like for him to make the climb, the obstacles he faced, and the nearly robotic drive to the top of the mountain. It is both inspiring and daunting. During the ascent, he finds himself in impossible positions like his having fallen into a crevasse or crack in the glacier. You know that he survives but you still find your self on the edge of your seat in total suspense. It was difficult to put the book down during this part of the book.

Throughout the story there are excerpts from the diary of his girlfriend. For the most part, I found this annoying and did not want to hear her story. At the same time, it was interesting to have the perspective of the loved ones who wait at the bottom to see if you come home. It certainly is hard for anyone who cares. At the same time, those climbing the mountain give the mountain everything and emotionally, mentally, or physically there is nothing left. Undoubtedly this is a major reason for Messner's previous divorce. While mountain climbing may be the art of suffering, this element of the book shows that it is also a part of the lives of the climber's loved ones.

The worst part of the book is the writing. I am not sure if it is on the part of bad English by Reinhold Messner or poor translation by an editor. In either case, those familiar with working with the Germans will recognize the sometimes-strange sentence structure, phases that do not make sense, and the occasional struggle to figure out what the heck he is trying to say. I look forward to my German improving so that I can read the book in German.

All in all, an amazing story and is well worth the time to read it. The reader that is able to skim through uninteresting parts will enjoy the book more. Otherwise it requires some amount of dedication to power through the parts that are of disinterest.

Messner does a creditable job of recounting his tremendous climb of mount everest solo. However, he spends much of his time whining about his efforts to escape his popularity and constant quarrels with his girlfriend who accompanied him on his trip. Beyond that the book is intruiging and of great interest for those who enjoy adventure. The pics are great too..

I could not say anything less then that Reinhold Messner's "The Crystal Horizon" is a great book. It is not a usual climber's book, but rather a strange mix of history, politics, religion, geography, meteorology, personal history and world views of the man who is beyond doubt the greatest living mountaineer. The book deals with the first solo accent of Mnt. Everest, accomplished during the monsoon season. It is ravenously illustrated and photographed. It is an exciting adventure. It is a riot and a sad story of a man who escapes to the mountain to find peace. It is well worth you time.

One should forgive Messner (or rather his translator) some awkward sentence structures, punctuated by the action and verbal phrases put at the end of sentence, and quite frequent exercises in the obscure mix of native religion, Buddhist witticisms and Central European Christianity. I do however, applaud the honesty and occasional beauty of those philosophical excesses, particularly when he talks about feeling akin to Sisyphus when climbing and when he exhibits the diary entries of his girlfriend which does not always portrays him in the best light possible.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot.

Reinhold Messner and his climbing partner Peter Habler made the first ascent of Everest without oxygen in 1978. This has been heralded as one of mountaineering's greatest feats. Messner's book is an honest account of his very difficult Everest climb. It competes with the best climbing books, but Messner doesn't stop there. In addition to an account of his climb, there are additional sectons that talk about the climbs of Mallory, Irvine and Norton, as well as the first Everest ascent made by Sir Edmund Hillary. Messer also gives a description of Everest's climbing routs and a list of successful summits. In addition, the book is packed with great photos every couple of pages. So not only is this a great account of a great climb, it is jammed to the teeth with Everest info, maps, photos, ect. You cannot go wrong by purchasing this book

Hail to the king of the mountaineers! Read about Messner's climb of K2 without oxygen - an amazing feat even for today's best conditioned climbers. For another book with tales of adventure on a slightly smaller scale, try "Rocky Mountain Adventure Collection."

It's worth picking up in a library, but I was disappointed after paying the hardcover price following a favorable review in Outside magazine. It's really two books in one, as another reviewer said - a book about the author's search for the Yeti of myth, and a few chapters about an obscure kind of bear. Apparently the author thinks that the Yeti stories are basically Tibetan legens about the bear; that's a great theory, but I'm not sure it's worthy of the sensationalistic title/cover that this book has.

The title is probably a lot more descriptive than you think. When I noticed this book on the shelf, I saw the word YETI in large letters and took it to be another book with a cryptozoological bent. That isn't what the book is about though. It is about his quest for an answer to his question of the Yeti's origin.

This is a quick read. Primarily, this is because his descriptions of the territory and his travels throughout the mountains are fascinating. Just hearing about how he goes from culture to culture and lets us know what Tibet is becoming was interesting.

Not until the very end of the book are we sure what Messner thinks of the Yeti. Of course, from his narrative, he doesn't know what he thinks until the end. He has the hypothesis that the yeti is pure myth with a basis in reality. He believes that the local bear, the chemo, is the basis for these myths. Myths are real in that they shape the local beliefs and culture.

Obviously Messner is intelligent. He is able to speak many languages. Unfortunately, I found his jumping from term to term concerning the yeti to be confusing. After reflecting on the book, I think that is pretty indicative of the whole yeti myth (which Messner may be trying to tell us). No one can agree on the terminology or characteristics of the yeti. This is part of the myth. The characteristics and name will change from culture to culture.

If you are wanting to read a book on the yeti. This would be a nice change of pace from the average X-Files type of story about the yeti. As a general travel book, this is a fairly entertaining read.

I bought this book with some high hopes. I have read Messners mountaineering books and enjoyed them. Too bad this wasn't as well written.

He spends a lot of time contradicting himself and trying to convince the reader that evidence that obviously does not conform to bear sightings, does in fact, prove that the Yeti is some form of rarely sighted bear. In addition he drops in many smug and to my mind, conceited asides on the inadequacies of every investigator before his exalted self.

The photos of tracks he includes ARE obviously bear tracks - so the conclusion I would draw is that he saw a bear and not a Yeti, and probably should have written a book about being scared of a Tibetan bear.

He seems utterly convinced though, all evidence to the contrary, that he has solved the mystery.

So, it is a quick read, not particularly well written and more concerned with bragging about his adventures sneaking around in Chinese controlled areas illegally than it is a serious book about solving the Yeti enigma.

Messner's account of the early years of a remarkable climbing career skips over each individual ascent so quickly that the reader loses interest. While his writing in itself is not unskilled, the rapid descriptions make the book read like a laundry list. Also, while his puritanical philosophy of mountaineering must have its roots in this early period, he mentions its development only in passing. Despite some gorgeous photographs, this book does not approach the best of its kind.

Free Spirit could have, potentially, been a incredible account of a brilliant mountaineering career. Instead, during the course of the book, one can picture Messner sitting down 20 years later in an attempt to remember exactly how he felt during his numerous expeditions and bold first ascents.

Although the book starts out well enough with fond memories of his childhood in the Dolomites, it quickly degrades into a fact-fest of unemotional paragraphs that will disappoint. How anyone can describe their first ascent of Everest without oxygen, or the death of a brother in so few words is amazing; if not degrading.

Your climbing collection will not miss this volume.

The achievements of Reinhold Messner are legendary. Among them, he is the first man to have ascended Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. He is also the first man to have climbed all fourteen 8000-meter peaks. Mr. Messner could rightfully be quite boastful and egotistic in his writing. Exactly the opposite is true. The book was panned by a number of reviewers for being "dry". This is precisely why I find the book so engaging and interesting. Mr. Messner narrates his achievements in a matter of fact manner leaving the reader to fill in the enormity of his spirit. Personally, I find the single-minded obsession of mountain climbers to be somewhat bizarre. Yet, I find reading about the tales of misery and death to be entertaining. I admire Mr. Messner for his unbridled enthusiam for mountain climbing and also for his restraint in narrating the tales.

I read this book years ago and was much more impressed with Messner's feats than with his writing. He succeeds in giving a sense of what it's like to climb a Himalayan peak sans bottled oxygen, and it is fortunate to have someone who can tell us firsthand about Nanga Parbat's Rupal Face, but the writing (unlike the sheer faces Messner has climbed in record time) is of a low grade. If there is anyone in the world who needs a detailed biography written on him, it is Messner. He is indeed the Michael Jordan of climbing; no one is in his league. But man do I wish some good, talented, informed writer would do a bio on this guy. No more bios on Lady Di and Donald Trump--please! Messner is a subject ripe for someone willing and able.

I found this a great and interesting book. Messner accounts of his solo ascent with chronicled journal entries and excellent photo's and maps of his route. His story and struggle to solo a high peak like Nanga Parbat is enthrawling in the face of most mountaineering feats. I found myself baffled that Messner has lived through all of his attempts and victored in the face of loneliness and without the apparent safety of an expedition team. This climb never ceases to blow me away!

Right after Messner summited Everest without supplemental oxygen, he went back to Nanga Parbat to solo a new route. I found the book a good read. I was particularly amazed at the difficulty of climbing he attempted while soloing: especially downclimbing a new route after his route was destroyed by an earthquake when he was still on the face!