Everest Alone at the Summit

Stephen Venables and three companions set out to climb Everest's most challenging and remote wall, the massive Kangshung Face in 1988. Some experts gave them little chance of success -- or even survival. The team was the smallest group ever to attempt such a difficult climb on the world's highest mountain. Following many weeks of struggle and a 16-hour push from high camp, Venables reached the summit alone. After a blizzard delayed his descent, he was forced to spend a night in the open at 28,000 feet -- and the team's troubles were just beginning. Book jacket.

Stephen Venables (born 1954) started climbing while a student at Oxford. He has made many first ascents of peaks in the Himalaya, Patagonia and elsewhere, and was the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen