HIMALAYAN QUEST

Ed Viesturs on the 8,000-meter Giants

Washington—Pre-eminent high-altitude climber Ed Viesturs chronicles his remarkable attempt to become the first American to summit the world's 14 highest peaks in a new book from National Geographic.

HIMALAYAN QUEST: Ed Viesturs on the 8,000-meter Giants (National Geographic Books, ISBN 0-7922-6884-9, February 2003, $20) is a stunningly photographed and breathtaking account of Viesturs' expeditions to the planet's highest mountains. Of the 14 peaks that top 8,000 meters, Viesturs has stood on the summit of 12, some more than once. What's more, he's conquered each without supplemental oxygen—a feat that would have been dismissed as impossible just decades ago.

Written with mountaineering journalist Peter Potterfield, Viesturs describes his adventures, and emotions, during his thrilling and often treacherous ascents. Three times he has mastered two 8,000-meter peaks in less than two weeks; he has stood atop Everest five times, and was on Everest in the fatal season of 1996 when he lost two close friends, helped rescue some of the shocked survivors—and then completed his own mission as lead climber of the IMAX® Filming Expedition. Yet he is no daredevil—several times he has turned back within a few hundred feet of the summit if he felt conditions were unsafe.

After each expedition he's returned with photographs that document the milestones of his ongoing quest to climb the world's highest mountains. In this book he shares the images that mean the most to him.

"'Himalayan Quest' is the result of 15 years of photography in the Himalayas. By sharing these images, I can give others the opportunity to see the beautiful things I have seen, often from the highest points on Earth. … I have traveled to amazing places where few human beings ever go and have seen sights seldom viewed by others. These views remain a part of what draws me to the mountains," he writes.

Some of the photographs are simply breathtaking—Kanchenjunga at dawn, looking out from 27,000 feet at a mountainscape bathed in red and gold. Others capture the challenge of mountaineering—Viesturs tackling the near vertical final face of Lhotse, or a string of climbers skirting the cornices of Annapurna's East Ridge. Still others show the human face of the Himalaya, from bittersweet snapshots of friends like Scott Fischer and Rob Hall, who gave their lives in pursuit of their dreams, to portraits of the Nepalese who live in the shadow of the sacred snow-shrouded giants.

A unique, inspiring and spine-tingling glimpse into the rarified world of the extreme climber, HIMALAYAN QUEST will appeal not only to Viesturs' significant fan base (fondly known as Edheads or Edophiles) but also to outdoor aficionados and armchair adventurers everywhere.

Contact: Nancy Friend
Hilsinger-Mendelson
+1 212 725-7707
nfriend@hmieast.com