A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalayas: Amazon.ca: Stephen Venables, Clint Willis: Books

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Review

A gripping read -- The Times, February 17, 2000

One of the msot reflective, well-crafted, self-aware expedition books you're likely to read. -- High Magazine, May 2000

Outstanding ... A Slender Thread is his best book. -- Climber magazine 2000

Venables writes with elegance, conjuring up vividly and honestly his companions, [with] an acute awareness of the environment through which he travels. -- Observer, January 16, 2000

powerful, dramatic writing ...one of the best mountaineering books to have been published for a long while. -- Sunday Telegraph, March 2, 2000

Book Description

A dramatic account, describing the mountaineering disaster on the unclimbed and sacred mountain of Panch Chuli, which so nearly ended the life of Stephen Venables, and the committed teamwork that brought him to safety.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

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2.1 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP..., Jan 4 2003

By

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)

This review is from: A Slender Thread (Hardcover)

This book is well-written, but much of it is decidedly dull. The author writes with all the passion of a dead fish. There are, however, some interesting passages about the history of a remote section of the Himalayas known as the Pancha Chuli massif, which are actually five peaks close to India's border with western Nepal.

It is to this region that the author went in 1992 as part of an expedition led by world-renowned British climber, Chris Bonnington. Quite frankly, the author makes himself out to be a less than ideal climbing partner. He apparently had choice words for everyone, including Chris Bonnington. He is lucky that they are apparently better men than he, or he would never have survived his accident, a three hundred foot fall while 19,000 feet up the mountain. But for his fellow expeditioners, the author would still be up there, a silent, frozen reminder to other climbers of the peril that may sometimes await one while climbing.

His account of what happens both before and after his accident, and upon his return home, as well as what occurs on his next expedition, gives the reader a measure of the author as a person. There are certainly those who may find him wanting. Yet, notwithstanding his readily apparent, personal shortcomings, his dispassionate account of his travail high up on a remote Himalayan peak is still a worthwhile read, if you are a devotee of mountaineering literature. If you are not, deduct one star from my rating.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Raises troubling questions, July 12 2001

By

Gwilym Archer - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalayas (Paperback)

On one level 'A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalayas' is a standard mountain expedition book, with the focus on Steven Venables' own experience. But throughout there is a dark undercurrent of premonition and doubt. Venables has a bad feeling about the expedition from the start : "there was a sense of unease, even doom when I set off for India". There is also a sense of futility, that the golden age of mountain exploration is long past, as he implicitly compares past expeditions to the area (the Panch Chuli group near the border of India and Nepal) with the one he is on. Gone is the conviction of purpose and the "gentlemanly camaraderie" of earlier times. In fact Venables shows himself to be anything but gentlemanly on this trip. Often out of sorts, half-wishing he were back home with his wife and child, Venables indulges in tantrums and verbally attacks Chris Bonington, the team leader, when Bonington suggests retreat..

As for the accident, it is the breaking of the Slender Thread that all mountaineers depend on at many time during a climb. A well-tested anchor pulls out below the top of Panch Chuli V, sending Venables on a steep fall that breaks both his legs and which he is lucky just to survive. This combination of bad and good luck, and his utter dependence on his companions for making it down the mountain, is the real story of this expedition for Venables as he recognizes that in climbing he is gambling with more than just his own life.

This is my least favorite of the three book by Venables I've read, though I did enjoy it. There is little of the excitement and freshness of 'Painted Mountains' or the combination of great accomplishment and fascinating route finding in 'Everest: Alone at the Summit'. However, it raises troubling questions about mountain climbing and faces them directly, and these questions, along with the detailed description of a remote and rarely climbed range, make this a book worth reading.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Yawn yarn, July 12 2001

By

Dennice Mace (Portland, OREGON) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalayas (Paperback)

I was looking forward to reading this book, as some of Venable's previous books have been pretty funny. Somewhere along the line, he seems to have lost his sense of humor, and without that, this story of his misadventures up high reads hollow and rather sad. If you're going to mess up while climbing with a team, and need to get rescued all the time (the other reviewers are right;Venables seems to have created a genre for his own "help, save me!" tales on mountains)you better be funny about it. However, this book is far too serious and self-righteous for its own good. In fact it reads more like a teenager's diary than a climbing tale--right down to the nasty things Venables prints about the very people who rescued him! The 300-foot fall in the beginning is the only interesting part in the whole book, and then it's literally, downhill from there. I'm sorry to say that this book reveals the author as more of a poor sport and poor writer than his previous books.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars The Decline of British Mountaineering
As I read Stephen Venables story of folly in the remote Himalayas I couldn't but help feel a certain contempt, if not sadness at the decline of British mountaineering. Read more

Published on July 8 2001

3.0 out of 5 stars I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP...
This book is well written, but much of it is decidedly dull. The author writes with all the passion of a dead fish. Read more

Published on Jun 29 2001 by Lawyeraau