The joys, risks and motivations of mountaineering are at the heart of this text. The autobiographical account spans 64 years of mountain exploration in every continent, during which both attitudes and technology have changed. It is a story of the joy of discovery shared with friends in high places.

This personal account of mountainclimbing spans a period of 66 years, during which time attitudes and technology have undergone vast changes. The motivation for mountain climbing is not risk; it is the joy of exploration of the vertical, whether it be a virgin summit, a lonely precipice, or simply a new line on a familiar rock face. It is to heighten the senses in lonely remote places. It is to remove all obstacles between the individual and nature. In "With Friends in High Places, " Malcolm Slesser recalls perilous situations, such as the ill-fated Pamir expedition of 1962, and unusual environments including the Arctic and the Tropics that he has experienced throughout his decades of mountaineering and exploring around the globe.