On August 20, 1980, Reinhold Messner achieved a sensation: without artificial oxygen, without a climbing partner, without a fixed base camp, without porters, and via a new route on the Tibetan side, he solo climbed the highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. He compellingly describes not only the struggle for survival in the face of the immense challenges of nature but also the adventures of the psyche at the limits of human endurance, as well as the mystical experience of solitude at icy heights.