Senza mai arrivare in cima

From the author of The Eight Mountains. What is going to the mountains without conquering the summit? An act of non-violence, a desire for understanding, a turning around the meaning of one's walking. This book is a travel notebook, but also the illustrated, warm, detailed story of how certainties falter with altitude sickness, of how to communicate with a Tibetan dog, of how the landscape becomes a plot of the body and the spirit. Because the Himalayas are not a land to enter lightly: it is a living mountain, inhabited, used, sometimes suffered, very far from ours. To tackle it you need a real expedition, with guides, porters, mules, a camp to set up every evening and dismantle every morning, and above all good traveling companions. If it is true that in the mountains you walk alone even when you walk with someone, the sense of distance and exploration strengthens friendships. The endless nights in a tent with Nicola, the absolute magnificence of the mountain contemplated with Remigio, the ups and downs of the journey at high altitude, the otherness of the places and people encountered. This is the journey that Paolo Cognetti undertakes at the end of his fortieth year, just before passing the crest of youth.