A Walk in the Sky: The First Ascent of Hidden Peak

by Nicholas Clinch

Book Overview

This book is a first-person account of the first group of American climbers to reach an 8000-meter summit in the Himalayas. The photographs, some in full color, really bring the experience to life.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898860423
• ISBN13: 9780898860429
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Great Mountaineering Story

It was refreshing to read a good story of the first ascent of Hidden Peak in 1958. This was before the Himalayas were deluged by eco-tourists and before numerous sensationalist accounts of conquest written or filmed. Here is a story of some American mountaineers scraping together an expedition to enjyoy a climb of an 8,000 meter peak. How much better can it get? Perhaps the author "sanitized" the account since it is devoid of personality and ego conflicts. Everyone in the book is a happy camper: sahibs, HAPs and porters.

A biased reader

Since I know the author I am of course biased in his favor. But as he makes (favorable) mention of me in the book that gives him top rating of 5 stars. Actually, it's a darn fine book. I've been reading mountaineering literature for quite some time now and am struck by evolution of style over the years. Books of the 1920s and 30s now seem "detached." We learn from them what people DID, but not a lot about who the people WERE. (Tilman is a great and welcome exception.) Through his humor--often self-deprecating--Clinch's story makes it plain that mountaineers can accomplish great things while still enjoying themselves. Probably as a reflection of what the publishers know will sell, more recent books (and especially TV movies and the like) place so much emphasis on danger, harum-scarum and disaster that a general reader (who can't see between the lines) must get a very peculiar slant on climbing. Read it!