"If my library was to somehow catch fire and I could only save one book, the long out of print Conquistadors of the Useless, by Lionel Terray, would be it." --

Average suburban middle manager Nathan's life starts to unravel around him as his wife goes baby crazy, his friend wants to climb Everest, and he lends a copy o

“Hypnotic….It is ever tempting to try to fathom his restless spirit and his determination to challenge fate.” —Janet Maslin, New York Times Werner Herzo

Descriptive inquiry into the neurochemistry of extreme sports.

Dazzled by the sight of the vast treasure of gold and silver being unloaded at Seville’s docks in 1537, a teenaged Pedro de Cieza de León vowed to join the S