A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya (Adrenaline) [Paperback]

Stephen Venables (Author), Clint Willis (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 30, 2001 | Series: Adrenaline

Stephen Venables and three companions made the first ascent of Panchu Chuli V—a remote Himalayan peak on the borders of India, Nepal and Tibet. A rappel anchor failed on the descent, pitching Venables into a 300-foot fall. Crashing through the black night, flung from rock to rock, he assumed that he was plunging to his death. Against all odds he survived, but was left stranded 19,000 feet above a labyrinth of glaciers and snow slopes with two broken legs, the threat of gangrene, and scant food or medical supplies. If he was to return to his wife and son waiting at home some 5000 miles away, Venables knew he had to draw on his reserve of courage and determination. The third Adrenaline Classic, A Slender Thread is a spellbinding account of Venables' survival—and his intense personal struggle to understand the risks he takes for the sake of his insatiable passion for climbing. He comes as close to anyone to answering the unanswerable question: Why do they do it?

Editorial Reviews

Review

A gripping story. -- The Times, February 17, 2000

One of the most reflective, well-crafted, self-aware expedition books you're likely to read ... by a talented writer. -- High magazine, May 2000

Powerful, dramatic writing. This is one of the best mountaineering books to have been published for a long while. -- Sunday Telegraph, March 2, 2000

Venables writes with elegance, conjuring up vividly and honestly his companions, [with] an acute awareness of the environment through which he travels. -- Observer books review, January 16, 2000

From the Author

Praise from one's peers is always welcome. I would like to quote from two specialist reviews. The philosopher José Bermudez wrote in the Alpine Journal: 'A Slender Thread is certainly one of the best expedition books I have read for some time. It is well paced, wittily written and hard to put down. Readers of Venables's earlier books will not be disappointed. The best part ... comes when Venables sets aside the self-deprecating and inward-looking house style of the British mountaineering establishment and shifts into a more reflective and self-examining mode.'

On the other side of the pond, in the American Alpine Journal, Andrew Stevenson wrote: 'In many ways this book speaks to the aspects of climbing that I value, more so than those espoused in other climbing naratives, which of late seem to require some desperate sensational scheme or tragedy. Here we have, as Bob Bates said so well in the title of his book, "Mystery, Beauty, Danger". Added to the mix are capable companions and a little luck and humility. What more could one want from a book or a climb?'

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; Tion edition (January 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560252987
• ISBN-13: 978-1560252986
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #46 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Horses > Racing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ZZZZzzzzzzzz, June 13, 2001

By 

Kayte Wend (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya (Adrenaline) (Paperback)

This is one of the most cliche-ridden, naval-gazing climbing stories I've read in a long, long time. I didn't even know an audience still existed for this kind of well-worn mountaineering pablum. The story is right out of a computer format: Stephen Venables goes on a climb, gets hurt, misses his wife and kids, and needs to be rescued so he can get back and see them. [...]I think I've read this story about a hundred times before, usually by more honest observers.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Raises troubling questions, July 12, 2001

By 

Gwilym Archer - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya (Adrenaline) (Paperback)

On one level 'A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalayas' is a standard mountain expedition book, with the focus on Steven Venables' own experience. But throughout there is a dark undercurrent of premonition and doubt. Venables has a bad feeling about the expedition from the start : "there was a sense of unease, even doom when I set off for India". There is also a sense of futility, that the golden age of mountain exploration is long past, as he implicitly compares past expeditions to the area (the Panch Chuli group near the border of India and Nepal) with the one he is on. Gone is the conviction of purpose and the "gentlemanly camaraderie" of earlier times. In fact Venables shows himself to be anything but gentlemanly on this trip. Often out of sorts, half-wishing he were back home with his wife and child, Venables indulges in tantrums and verbally attacks Chris Bonington, the team leader, when Bonington suggests retreat..

As for the accident, it is the breaking of the Slender Thread that all mountaineers depend on at many time during a climb. A well-tested anchor pulls out below the top of Panch Chuli V, sending Venables on a steep fall that breaks both his legs and which he is lucky just to survive. This combination of bad and good luck, and his utter dependence on his companions for making it down the mountain, is the real story of this expedition for Venables as he recognizes that in climbing he is gambling with more than just his own life.

This is my least favorite of the three book by Venables I've read, though I did enjoy it. There is little of the excitement and freshness of 'Painted Mountains' or the combination of great accomplishment and fascinating route finding in 'Everest: Alone at the Summit'. However, it raises troubling questions about mountain climbing and faces them directly, and these questions, along with the detailed description of a remote and rarely climbed range, make this a book worth reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I'VE FALLEN AND I CAN'T GET UP..., June 29, 2001

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya (Adrenaline) (Paperback)

This book is well written, but much of it is decidedly dull. The author writes with all the passion of a dead fish. There are, however, some interesting passages about the history of a remote section of the Himalayas known as the Pancha Chuli massif which are actually five peaks close to India's border with western Nepal.

It is to this region that the author went in 1992 as part of an expedition led by world reknowned British climber, Chris Bonnington. Quite frankly, the author makes himself out to be a less than ideal climbing partner. He apparently had choice words for everyone, including Chris Bonnington. He is lucky that they are apparently better men than he, or he would never have survived his accident, a three hundred foot fall 19,000 feet up the mountain. But for his fellow expeditioners, the author would still be up there, a silent, frozen reminder to other climbers of the peril that may sometimes await one while climbing.

His account of what happens both before and after his accident, and upon his return home, as well as what occurs on his next expedition, gives the reader a measure of the author as a person. There are certainly those who may find him wanting. Yet, notwithstanding his readily apparent, personal shortcomings, his dispassionate account of his travail high up on a remote Himalayan peak is still a worthwhile read, if you are a devotee of mountaineering literature. If you are not, deduct one star from my rating.