Thin Air is the story of a British expedition's 1935 attempt to scale the mountain. Previous expeditions, notably a British Expedition in 1907 had failed, with only two of the 7 men returning and only four men buried. Kangchengjunga, the second highest mountain in the Himalaya after Everest and one of the most dangerous to climb, first climbed by a British expedition in 1955. As macabre mementoes of the earlier climbers turn up on the trail, Stephen starts to suspect that Charles Lyell's account of the tragedy was perhaps not the full story. As they get higher and higher, and the oxygen levels drop, he starts to see dark things out of the corners of his eyes. He hints of dark things ahead and tells Pearce that, while five men lost their lives on the mountain, only four were laid to rest.īut Pearce is determined to go ahead and complete something that he has dreamed of his entire life. The only other survivor of the 1907 expedition, Charles Tennant, warns him off. It is this book that will guide this new group to get to the very top.Īs the team prepare for the epic climb, Pearce's unease about the expedition deepens. Lyell became a classic British hero when he published his memoir, Bloody, But Unbowed, which regaled his heroism in the face of extreme odds. No one has scaled it before, and they are, quite literally, following in the footsteps of one of the most famous mountain disasters of all time - the 1907 Lyell Expedition.įive men lost their lives back then, overcome by the atrocious weather, misfortune and 'mountain sickness' at such high altitudes. The elite team of five will climb Kangchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain and one of mountaineering's biggest killers. In 1935, young medic Stephen Pearce travels to India to join an expedition with his brother, Kits.

Thin air book michelle paver