The six friends who set off to climb in the Andes in the autumn of 1971 were as varied and remarkable as the characters in a novel. The expedition was led by Robin Fedden, the writer and poet, and his wife there was a Swiss international skier and jeweller, a social anthropologist from Provence who had fought in the French Resistance and a Nottinghamshire farming squire, all seasoned mountaineers. The others, a botany-loving duke and the author, were absolute beginners. This book tells of the experiences of their journey, the cities and places visited.