An awestruck love letter to one of the most spectacular places on earth from the author of international bestseller The Eight MountainsPaolo 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 wellworn copy of The Snow Leopard. Written in 1978 Matthiessens 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 Cognettis own bestseller The Eight Mountains. An investigation into the authors 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.