From the Appalachians to Mount Cook, from Peak Lenin to Siula Grande, the thirty-five gripping first-hand accounts of incredible rescues at the top of the world in this mammoth volume span five continents and feature an international cast of mountaineers, including Joe Simpson, Doug Scott, Pete Sinclair, Milos Vrbe, Paul Nunn, Ludwig Gramminger, Karen Glazely, Ken Phillips, Jamie Andrew, and Blaise Agresti.

Compiled and edited by Hamish MacInnes, the Scottish mountaineering legend and pioneer in the field of mountain rescue, the collection includes work that has never before appeared in print—like the first draft of Joe Simpson's breathtaking tale of survival in the Peruvian Andes, "Touching the Void." Specially commissioned for this volume are the accounts of a dramatic rescue executed by the Search and Rescue Team in Grand Canyon National Park; of the most remote mission ever undertaken by a helicopter rescue team, in the winter of 2000, on Mount Ararat; and of Jamie Andrew's extraordinary, international newsmaking 1999 rescue from the Alps. Rescue attempts are the real-life stuff of drama and suspense. They thrust the players into an elemental struggle for survival. In equal measure, the adventures recounted in this collection will definitely shock and inspire.