The Two Year Mountain: A Nepal Journey

by Phil Deutschle

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781841627328
Publisher:	Bradt Travel Guides Ltd
Publication date:	02/23/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	988,034
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

The author's other adventures have included cycling across the Kalahari and Namib deserts, getting captured by pirates while canoeing down the Congo River, hunting with Bushmen, and falling through a crevasse while ice climbing unroped in the Andes. Currently living in Salinas California, teaching physics and astronomy, he says I have never owned a car, which makes me a true counter-culture freak in the US.

Table of Contents

March 15: Tribhuvan International Airport

March 16: Dube Village

March 17: Thoripaani

March 18:Thoripaani 7,200 feet

March 19:Deuraauli 8,000 feet

March 20:Waapsu 6,700 feet

March 21:Karikhola 6,800 feet

March 22:Chaurikharka 8,500 feet

March 23, 24:Namche Bazaar 11,286 feet

March 25:Namche Bazaar 11,286 feet

March 26:Thyangboche 12,687 feet

March 27:Pangboche 13,074 feet

March 28:Pheriche almost 14,000 feet

March 29:Lobuche 16,175 feet

March 30:Lobuche 16,175 feet

March 31:Lobuche 16,175 feet to Kala Pattar 18,192 feet

April 1:Lobuche Village to Lobuche East

April 2:Lobuche

April 3:Lobuche 16,175 feet to Everest Base Camp 17,700 feet

April 4, 5:Lobuche to Pheriche to Chukung

April 6:Chukung 15,518 feet

April 7:Island Peak High Camp 18,400 feet

April 8:Island Peak High Camp 18,400 feet

April 9:Pheriche almost 14,000 feet

April 10:Tshola Tsho 15,000 feet

April 11:Dzongla 15,889 feet

April 12:Nyimaganoa Camp 17,300 feet

April 13:Kangchung Himal Camp 17,700 feet

April 14:Kangchung Himal Camp 17,700 feet

April 15:Gokyo 15,720 feet

April 16:Gokyo Kang 17,600 feet

April 17:Dole Village 13,400 feet

April 18, 19, 20,21:Namche Bazaar 11,286 feet

April 22:Namche

April 23:Thame 12,500 feet

April 24:Patch of Yak Grass 15,700 feet

April 25:Tasi Lapcha Pass around 19,000 feet

April 26:Tasi Lapcha Pass 19,000 feet

April 27:Tasi Lapcha Pass

April 28:Tasi Lapcha

Epilogue

Glossary

Nepali Facts

Acknowledgments

Maps