Featuring an extra-sturdy library binding! Here is an original and exciting new guide to the enthralling challenges of life and death on the world's greatest mountain ranges. Spectacular, full-color photographs of secret mountain kingdoms and scenes of courageous climbers as they conquer the summits present an inspiring "eyewitness" view of the majesty of mountains. See castles among the clouds, cable cars, funiculars, and steep mountain roads, lost ruins of the fabled Inca and Aztec civilizations, and dramatic waterfalls and rock formations. Learn how mountains are created, where to seek shelter in an avalanche, why the body of Otzi, the Ice Man, lay undiscovered for centuries, and why the Crusaders perched castles on peaks. Discover the truth behind yetis and other mountain myths, what really happened on Mallory and Irvine's fatal expedition to Everest, the sacrifice of the ice maidens of the Andes, how climbers tackle a sheer rock face, and much much more.