The Battle for the Himalayas. The Crazy Race of Empires for the Roof of the World

Against the backdrop of rising tensions in Europe in the 1930s, as the world rapidly approached a new war, climbers were engaged in their own, equally dramatic battle — for the conquest of the Himalayas.
Ten countries. Numerous expeditions. And one goal — to be the first to summit Everest, K2, and other unattainable peaks.
At the start of the race, none of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters had been conquered by humans.
The British, Germans, and Americans ventured without maps, oxygen tanks, and modern equipment into the icy silence, to the edge between life and death.
Scott Ellsworth, a "historian with the soul of a poet" and the author of five New York Times bestselling books, masterfully weaves together the adventurous epic, the history of science, and human bravery into a single narrative.
"The Battle for the Himalayas. The Crazy Race of Empires for the Roof of the World" is more than a chronicle of the conquest of the Himalayas. It is a story about people whose characters were forged in the mountains. They yearned to reach the point where the earth disappears beneath the clouds, and the whole world is underfoot.
This is a book about dreams and ambitions, about fanaticism and valor — about how far a person can go when they want to touch the sky.