WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD'The most exhilarating history of mountaineering ... a riveting read' - Jeremy PaxmanOnce we thought monsters lived there. In the Enlightenment we scaled them to commune with the sublime. Soon we were racing to conquer their summits in the name of national pride.In this ground-breaking classic work Robert Macfarlane takes us up into the mountains: to experience their shattering beauty the fear and risk of adventure and to explore the strange impulses that have for centuries lead us to the world's highest places.