Nimsdai Purja

Served in the Gurkhas and then the Special Boat Service, then quit with no pension to attempt something mountaineers considered impossible.

Project Possible put all fourteen peaks above eight thousand metres inside seven months, against a previous record of nearly eight years, and Beyond Possible is his account of it. He also rescued climbers mid-attempt, which cost him days he did not have. The book is blunt about sponsorship, about Nepali climbers being written out of Himalayan history, and about how much of the summit photography industry rests on Sherpa labour.