A slender thread : escaping disaster in the Himalaya
by Stephen Venables
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"Stephen Venables and three companions were returning triumphant from the first ascent of Panch Chuli V - a remote Himalayan peak on the borders of India, Nepal and Tibet. They had been gone from the top camp for twenty-four hours and the fifth team member, Chris Bonington, was waiting anxiously. It was just before dawn when Bonington saw a torchlight plunging through the darkness and knew that something terrible had happened." "Crashing through the black night, flung from rock to rock, show more Stephen Venables assumed that he was plunging to his death. Against all the odds, he survived a fall of three hundred feet. However, both his legs were broken, one gashed open to the bone. Stranded at 19,000 feet above a labyrinth of dangerous, chaotic glaciers, his predicament was desperate." "This is the account of an escape, by one of the best known mountaineers of his generation. It is also a story of exploration - the exploration of a remote, unknown Himalayan valley and the less obvious, internal, exploration of a mind trying to come to terms with risk and death."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved show lessTags
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I am surprised that Stephen Venables is able to make a living as a moutaineer/writer if "A Slender Thread: Escaping disaster in the Himalaya" is a good example of his work. I just really didn't like his writing style, which made what should be a compelling and interesting story terribly boring. I couldn't get through this book, so maybe it improved by the time it got to the latter half.
Venables book is mostly about a giant fall he took while climbing in the Himalaya. (I just put this book down a few hours ago and I honestly can't even remember where this fall took place.) He talks about a gazillion other climbs along the way and is a huge name dropper -- this is a book that will appeal to someone who dwells in climbing circles, I think, show more but not to an arm chair adventurer.
I've read a lot of excellent books by mountaineers who also happened to be talented writers, and this book just really paled in comparison. show less
Venables book is mostly about a giant fall he took while climbing in the Himalaya. (I just put this book down a few hours ago and I honestly can't even remember where this fall took place.) He talks about a gazillion other climbs along the way and is a huge name dropper -- this is a book that will appeal to someone who dwells in climbing circles, I think, show more but not to an arm chair adventurer.
I've read a lot of excellent books by mountaineers who also happened to be talented writers, and this book just really paled in comparison. show less
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Tibet & Tibetan Buddhism
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Author Information
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Stephen Venables (born 1954) started climbing while a student at Oxford. He has made many first ascents of peaks in the Himalaya, Patagonia and elsewhere, and was the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A slender thread : escaping disaster in the Himalaya
- Important places
- Himalayas
Classifications
- Genres
- Sports and Leisure, Nonfiction, Travel, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 796.522092 — Arts & recreation Recreation, sports, and performing arts Athletic and outdoor sports and games Outdoor leisure Walking and exploring by kind of terrain Mountains, hills and rocks standard subdivisions History, geographic treatment, biography
- LCC
- GV199.44 .I42 .P368 — Geography, Anthropology and Recreation Recreation. Leisure Recreation. Leisure Outdoor life. Outdoor recreation Hiking. Pedestrian tours
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 71
- Popularity
- 440,121
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.94)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 3
