The heart-breaking, triumphant and inspirational story of Tomaz Humar, who fled civil war in Yugoslavia and became one of the world's greatest - and most controversial - mountaineers.
In August, 2005, Tomaz Humar was trapped on a narrow ledge at 5900 metres on the formidable Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat. He had been attempting a new route, directly up the middle of the highest mountain face in the world - solo. After six days he was out of food, almost out of fuel and frequently buried by avalanches. The world was watching: would this be the most spectacular rescue in climbing history? Or a tragic - and very public - death in the mountains?
Years before, as Yugoslavia slid into chaos, Humar was unceremoniously conscripted into a dirty war that he despised. Finally he did the unthinkable; he deserted. And he became a climber.
Within very few years, he was among the best in the world. Reinhold Messner, among others, called him the most remarkable mountain climber of his generation. His routes were seldom repeated; most considered them to be suicidal; yet he often climbed them solo.
Tomaz Humar has cooperated with Bernadette McDonald, the distinguished former director of the Banff Festival and author of several books on mountaineering, to tell his utterly remarkable story.
