In July 1985, in the heart of the Karakoram, two climbers, Wojciech Kurtyka of Poland and Robert Schauer of Austria, set out to confront a face that was long whispered about in the mountaineering world, the untouched, 2,500-meter-high west face of Gasherbrum IV. The mountain was legendary. Gasherbrum IV, 7,925…

In the summer of 1935, in the shadow of Mt Ruapehu, a boy from flat New Zealand laid eyes on his first mountain. It changed everything. It was sixteen-year-old Edmund Hillary, a shy, gangly boy; unsure of his place in the world, but something in the high, frozen wilds spoke…

In the summer of 1984, beneath the endless ridgelines of the Karakoram, two men set out on a route no one had dared. Jerzy Kukuczka and Wojciech Kurtyka, top Polish alpinists, visionaries of the high and cold style turned their eyes toward Broad Peak’s unclimbed northwest ridge. The mountain was…

In the summer of 1865, Edward Whymper stood beneath the east face of the Matterhorn, a pyramid of snow and shattered rock rising nearly 4,500 meters above Zermatt. Sheer. Seductive. Untouched. The last great Alpine summit. For five years, Whymper had tried and failed to climb it. This time, he…

In the summer of 1977, deep in the wild granite of the Karakoram, a small British team set their sights on Baintha Brakk, The Ogre (7,285 meters). Remote. Technical. Unforgiving. But the real story wasn’t the summit. It was the descent. Chris Bonington, Doug Scott, Mo Anthoine, Clive Rowland, Nick…

In the summer of 1986, beneath the sweeping flanks of K2’s South Face, two men moved toward the unknown. Jerzy Kukuczka and Tadeusz Piotrowski, Polish alpinists, seasoned in hardship, fueled by something deeper than ambition. The mountain needs no introduction. K2, the “Savage Mountain,” had defeated many. But the south…

In the spring of 2025, 🇧🇩 Ikramul Hasan Shakil stood at the very top of the world the summit of Mount Everest as dawn broke over the Himalayas. 31 years old. Breathing thin air 8,848.86 meters above sea level. But this was not just a summit. This was the final…

In the summer of 1970, beneath the vast, glaciated walls of Nanga Parbat, two brothers stood together, facing the void. A mountain standing 8,126 meters above sea level, towering, terrifying, and unfinished. Reinhold and Günther Messner, sons of the South Tyrolean Alps, forged in shared ambition. together. Wild, stubborn, and…

In the summer of 1953, beneath the vast, avalanche-scarred walls of Nanga Parbat, one man moved alone toward history. His name was Hermann Buhl. The mountain was already infamous not for its height, but for its fury. Nanga Parbat: the “Naked Mountain,” the “Killer Mountain.” Thirty-one had died there already.…

On this day, 22 June in the summer of 2013, beneath the vast, icy walls of Nanga Parbat, Pakistan’s second-highest peak, a storm gathered. But this was not the kind that climbers feared. It was neither wind nor snow. It was terrorism. On the night of June 22, the mountain’s…

In the autumn of 2000, while the world looked up in awe at Everest’s gleaming crown, a man stood on its summit — not just to climb it, but to descend it. Davo Karničar, a Slovenian alpinist and extreme skier, clipped into his skis at 8,848.86 meters — the highest…