The Two Year Mountain
eBook - ePub

The Two Year Mountain

A Nepal Journey

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eBook - ePub

The Two Year Mountain

A Nepal Journey

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About This Book

With his life literally hanging from a slender rope over a crevasse near the top of a Himalayan mountain, a young man relives in his mind a relentless two-year physical and spiritual test as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote mountain village of Nepal.

Combining the elements of adventure story, travel log, and personal confession, this absorbing account describes a wrenching experience that belies the idealistic expectations of many Peace Corps volunteers.

Following a two-year stint as a science and mathematics teacher in a Nepalese village, Phil Deutschle sets off alone on a three-month expedition to conquer Pharchamo, 20, 580 feet high, which has claimed several lives and is his final goal in the Himalayas.

This trek forms the framework of the book, and into it Deutschle weaves the story of his experiences over the previous two years in a series of sharply etched, swiftly moving, often humorous anecdotes.

Deutschle is not starry-eyed about Nepal and its people or, least of all, about the mission of the Peace Corps. He vividly describes events that are both horrible and poignant: being charged by a rhinoceros, the awful fascination of watching a corpse burn on a funeral pyre, the struggle to save a child's life, scaling a Himalayan peak higher than Mount McKinley (the highest mountain in North America). Despite his difficulties, he steels himself to stay one year, then the full two years, and, imperceptibly, grows so attached to the village that he leaves it in tears.

Mourning the "small death" of his departure, confused about his identity as an American, and feeling more alienated than before, he sets off on a final, reckless, solo climb of Mount Pharchamo, hardly caring whether he survives. Apathetic from lack of oxygen and from his own malaise and only when his life literally hangs on a slender rope, does he overcome despair and make a gigantic effort to save himself.

The two parts of the book - the emotional challenge of the village and physical challenge of the climb - come together in a triumphant affirmation of life.

A native Californian, Phil Deutschle is currently teaching handicapped children in Denmark.

The Two Year Mountain was originally published by Bradt in 1986 and remains as relevant to the spirit of exploration and real, raw travel writing today as it was then.

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Information

Publisher
Bradt Travel Guides
Year
2012
ISBN
9781841627328
Topic
Personal Development
Subtopic
Travel

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Praise for the book
  3. About the author
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgements
  6. Foreword
  7. Map
  8. March 15 - Tribhuvan International Airport
  9. March 16 - Dube Village
  10. March 17 - Thoripaani
  11. March 18 - Thoripaani 7,200 feet
  12. March 19 - Deuraauli 8,000 feet
  13. March 20 - Waapsu 6,700 feet
  14. March 21 - Karikhola 6,800 feet
  15. March 22 - Chaurikharka 8,500 feet
  16. March 23 & 24 - Namche Bazaar 11,286 feet
  17. March 25 - Namche Bazaar 11,286 feet
  18. March 26 - Thyangboche 12,687 feet
  19. March 27 - Pangboche 13,074 feet
  20. March 28 - Pheriche almost 14,000 feet
  21. March 29 - Lobuche 16,175 feet
  22. March 30 - Lobuche 16,175 feet
  23. March 31 - Lobuche 16,175 feet to Kala Pattar 18,192 feet
  24. April 1 - Lobuche Village to Lobuche East
  25. April 2 - Lobuche
  26. April 3 - Lobuche 16,175 feet to Everest Base Camp 17,700 feet
  27. April 4 & 5 - Lobuche to Pheriche to Chukung
  28. April 6 - Chukung 15,518 feet
  29. April 7 - Island Peak High Camp 18,400 feet
  30. April 8 - Island Peak High Camp 18,400 feet
  31. April 9 - Pheriche almost 14,000 feet
  32. April 10 - Tshola Tsho 15,000 feet
  33. April 11 - Dzongla 15,889 feet
  34. April 12 - Nyimaganoa Camp 17,300 feet
  35. April 13 - Kangchung Himal Camp 17,700 feet
  36. April 14 - Kangchung Himal Camp 17,700 feet
  37. April 15 - Gokyo 15,720 feet
  38. April 16 - Gokyo Kang 17,600 feet
  39. April 17 - Dole Village 13,400 feet
  40. April 18, 19, 20 & 21 - Namche Bazaar 11,286 feet
  41. April 22 - Namche
  42. April 23 - Thame 12,500 feet
  43. April 24 - Patch of Yak Grass 15,700 feet
  44. April 25 - Tasi Lapcha Pass around 19,000 feet
  45. April 26 - Tasi Lapcha Pass 19,000 feet
  46. April 27 - Tasi Lapcha Pass
  47. April 28 - Tasi Lapcha
  48. Epilogue 1985
  49. Homecoming, 2011
  50. June 2011 - Tribhuvan International Airport
  51. Kathmandu, to Lamidada, to Sipa Ghat, to Aiselukharka: Sindhupalchowk District
  52. Aiselukharka
  53. Glossary
  54. Endnotes
  55. Photographs
  56. Publisher's information