Bart Vos

In 1982 Bart Vos was one of the members of the unsuccessful Dutch expedition to Mount Everest. Two years later he returned on his own and became the first Dutchman to reach the top of the world’s highest mountain. He described his experiences in his highly praised first book, Himalaya-dagboek (Himalayan Diary, 1988). His second book Naar het sneeuwgebergte (To the Snow-Capped Mountains, 1992) recounts a number of climbs in New Guinea but is, above all, a gripping travel story. Both books were bestsellers.

Hoger dan de Dhaulagiri

(Nijgh & Van Ditmar, 1997, 204 pagina's)

Since the fiasco of the first Dutch Everest expedition in 1982 - due partly to bad luck, but primarily to internal rivalry - Bart Vos has opted for the most elementary form of climbing. He climbs alone and with a minimum of equipment and back-up, without resorting to other climbers for help, and without using ropes that may have been left behind by earlier climbers. Solo climbing demands extreme discipline in order to avoid making fatal errors, and great mental strength to cope with the icy loneliness.