·
To The Top
By Stephen Venables,
Natural
Science/History
·
The
author is an avid mountaineer from Britain. He has scaled the tallest peaks on
most of the continents on Earth. He was the first Briton to ascend Mt Everest
without supplementary oxygen.
·
I also love
outdoors adventure and mountain-climbing. It is a great look at the perils of
mountain climbing, in one of the worlds most extreme environments, and the extents
that humans will go to in the name of exploration.
·
·
Some talk topics:
o
Venables
provides a historical account of Everest expeditions as well as his own ascent
of the mountain in 1988.
o
The
reader gets a great feel for the personalities of the explorers.
o
The
severity of these “adventures” is staggering.
o
Many
lives were lost and many fortunes were made in the attempts to climb Mt
Everest.
o
The
story is riveting at times, while giving the reader a lot of historical and
scientific facts related to the topic.
o
One
emphasis of the book is on the people who live in the high valleys around Mt
Everest in Nepal, the Sherpa people. Venables also takes care to
mention women climbers who have ascended the peak.
o
I
loved the authors description of his own experience climbing Mt Everest.
“The work was fun, because we were exploring. No human being
had ever touched the rock, snow, and ice where we made our route. Because the
climbing was very steep and complicated, we sometimes made only about 1,000 feet
in a day . . . The scenery was incredible and we found ourselves in amazing
places. There were immense striped walls of rock. Huge snow gullies. And an
incredible ridge of gleaming ice towers, like giant crystal vegetables, which
we called the Cauliflower Towers.”
o
I
would recommend this book to anyone who likes adventure, exploration, history,
and accounts of great human achievements.
Image credit- http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61403000/jpg/_61403353_stephenvenablesonthematterhorn.jpg
This sounds like a really educational book. I think it would really catch young boys attentions. I think this would be a great book that could be used for many history lessons. I like how it is not just a one time read but could be used throughout the school year.
ReplyDelete