From The Himalaya To Skye

The first serious attempt on a Himalayan 8000m peak - by one of Britain's most famous Victorian mountaineers. The first serious attempt on a Himalayan 8000m peak - by one of Britain's most famous Victorian mountaineers. Many British mountaineers who have treaded gingerly over the vertiginous Collie's Ledge on Skye, or climbed the famous Cioch, will know of Norman Collie. What is not so well known is that Collie also did many fine climbs in the Lofotens, the Canadian Rockies and the Alps. He was also a member of one of the first expeditions to the Himalayas. The Nanga Parbat expedition in 1895 was the first serious attempt to climb an 8000m Himalayan Peak. It was also the great Alpinist A.F. Mummery's last, fatal, climb. It is obvious that Mummery and Collie were treading new ground: time and time again they asked themselves the same old question: "How should we feel if we ever ascended to 26,000 feet?" And this was whilst they were suffering from altitude sickness at 20,000 feet. In the end, Nanga Parbat - The Naked Mountain - triumphed.Collie's words sum up the mood: "The avalanches were thundering down the face of Nanga Parbat, filling the air with their dust; and if nothing else had made it impossible to penetrate into the fastnesses of this cold, cheerless, and snow-covered mountain-land, they at least spoke with no uncertain voice, and bade us be gone." For anyone interested in the first serious Himalayan mountaineering expedition, or indeed any of Collie's other exploits, this book is a must-have.