Asia - Travel - General & Miscellaneous, Mountaineering - General & Miscellaneous, Natural Terrain - Mountains
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Overview
Above an eerie realm of endless snow covered spires . . . Each step appears increasingly impossible. Disorientation and fatigue make the climber's head swim and the body threaten to collapse. For Greg Child it happened at 8,000 meters on an all-out alpine-style climb marked by tragic loss.In this spellbinding chronicle, Greg Child takes us step by nerve-shattering step through the world's most remote regions - as he cracks the "death zone" above 26,000 feet, and attacks "by fair means" the world's most perilous pinnacles.From Child's assault on Gasherbrum IV to a season of tragedy and carnage on K2, Thin Air is more than one man's story - it is an intimate portrait of mountains and those who climb them: what bonds clients together and what separates them, and what the mountains teach us all about life — and death . . .
Editorials
Library Journal
Recipient of the 1987 American Alpine Club's Literary Award for excellence, Child chronicles three rigorous climbs he undertook on the Indian subcontinent in 1977, 1983, and 1986. In addition to a gripping personal narrative of one climber's physical, mental, and emotional triumphs and defeats, Child provides some political history and generally nonjudgmental observations on cultural, economic, and environmental conditions, as well as East-West differences. Although Thin Air would be improved by the addition of political maps, an index, and more rigorous copy editing, it is a worthwhile contribution to the literature of Himalayan climbs, deserving of a place alongside Fosco Maraini's Karakoram ( LJ 9/15/61) and Galen Rowell's In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods (Sierra Club, 1977). Recommended for academic, public, and some special libraries.-- Harry E. Whitmore, Univ. of Maine-AugustaBooknews
Child's climbs described. Good pictorial route illustrations and many fine color plates. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
September 1, 1990
Publisher
Salt Lake City : Peregrine Smith Books, [1990], c1988.
Pages
224
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780879053185