Epic is a mountaineering term that evokes a sense of treacherous disaster -- the climb that went wrong; fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound, running low on food, water, and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits.

Editor Clint Willis has gathered the most exciting climbing literature of the modern age into one cliff-hanging volume with 15 memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world's most famous peaks, often in the world's worst possible conditions.

Authors include Jon Krakauer, Greg Child, David Roberts, Alfred Lansing, and others.