On steep hiking trails, skiing on glaciers, or climbing in rock and ice, "Poets on the Mountain" experience themselves as non-writing climbing companions. They explore the driving forces behind their passion, question the meaning of the seemingly meaningless, and share their boundary experiences and fears. They perceive alpinism not just as a leisure activity but as a cultural phenomenon within a societal context. The mountain leaves its mark on their works, in the "black and white text mountains," as described by Zurich extreme mountaineer and author Roland Heer. With his own experiences in reading, writing, and climbing, writer and mountaineer Emil Zopfi has followed the traces of authors on the mountain and in their works. What paths have they taken, what has driven them, and what have they made of it? In doing so, he has uncovered unknown facets of life and in.