An awestruck love letter to one of the most spectacular places on earth from the author of
international bestseller The Eight Mountains. Paolo Cognetti marked his 40th birthday with a
journey he had always wanted to make: to Dolpo a remote Himalayan region where Nepal meets
Tibet. He took with him two friends a notebook mules and guides and a well-worn copy of The
Snow Leopard. Written in 1978 Matthiessen's classic was also turning forty and Cognetti set
out to walk in the footsteps of the great adventurer. Without Ever Reaching the Summit combines
travel journal secular pilgrimage literary homage and sublime mountain writing in a short
book for readers of Macfarlane Rebanks and Cognetti's own bestseller The Eight Mountains. An
investigation into the author's physical limits an ancient mountain culture and the
magnificence of nature it is an awestruck love letter to one of the most spectacular places on
earth. 'A breath of fresh air for mountain-lovers currently in confinement...The sparse
graceful prose...reflects the barren landscape and the author's joy in paring back the
distractions of modern life' Financial Times Best Books of 2020
