A Slender Thread
Stephen Venables
  • Published: 2 March 2001
  • ISBN: 9780099279068
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $39.99
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A Slender Thread

Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya

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Together with Chris Bonington and other distinguished British climbers, Stephen Venables was high on the unclimbed and sacred mountain of Panch Chuli when, at 1am on a dark Himalayan night, his abseil failed and he fell catastrophically, somersaulting from rock to rock and landing, seriously-wounded, at the end of a rope suspended above a 50-degree icefield. This is the story of his arduous and almost miraculous survival, and of the brilliant, committed teamwork which brought him to safety.
  • Published: 2 March 2001
  • ISBN: 9780099279068
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $39.99
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Stephen Venables

Stephen Venables was born in 1954 and began climbing while at Oxford. He has climbed extensively throughout the world and has created many new routes and first ascents. A former winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize and the Grand Award at Banff, the International Mountain Literature Festival, he lives in Bath with his wife Rosie and Ollie's brother, Edmond.

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Praise for A Slender Thread

Venables is one of the best climbers in the world, and one of the best writers about climbing . . . Read it, but be careful. You may never be content just to climb the stairs again

Julian Champkin, Mail on Sunday

The plummet experienced by Venables on the descent from his successful first ascent of Panch Chuli V in the Himalayas was of the kind most feared by climbers, the failure of an abseil point, an incident which usually guarantees death . . . Venables writes with understated elegance

Observer

Sensitive to the absurdity and honest about the selfishness, he is, more than most mountaineers, eloquent in describing the satisfactions climbing can bring . . . It is powerful, dramatic writing . . . This is one of the best mountaineering books to have been published for a long while

Chris Woodhead, Sunday Telegraph

One of the most successful climbers of his generation . . . outstanding . . . his best book

Ed Douglas, Climber