China to Chitral – H. W. Tilman (1951) (1st ed)

S$60.00

China to Chitral – H. W. Tilman (1951) (1st ed)

S$60.00

Title: From China to Chitral

Author: H. W. Tilman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1951. First edition.

Condition: Hardcover, with price-clipped dust jacket. Good, with some wear to dust jacket. Some foxing. With 69 photographs. 123pp., app 9″ by 6″/

SKU: chitral Categories: , , Tag:

About the book (from jacket flap):

This is the record, in text and pictures, of the Tilman journeys in 1949; how he failed to climb two mountains in Central Asia, how his porters fell ill, how the Chinese, the Russians, and his friends at the English Consulate, feasted him off his feet, how he looked upon the prospects of the mountains that he missed, how Chakragil (22,000 feet) was not there one day, how he journeyed by foot, by bus, by plane, by truck, by horse, and by donkey, and how he succeeded in the end in getting safely on his way home.

Contents:

Traveller or Passenger?
To Urumchi
Bogdo Ola
To Kashgar
Chakar Agil Reconnaissance
Chakar Aghil
To Misgar
To Chitral

About Tilman (from Wikipedia):

Major Harold William “Bill” Tilman, CBE, DSO, MC and Bar, (14 February 1898 – 1977) was an English mountaineer and explorer, renowned for his Himalayan climbs and sailing voyages.

Tilman was involved in two of the 1930s Mount Everest expeditions – participating in the 1935 Reconnaissance Expedition, and reaching 27,200 feet without oxygen as the expedition leader in 1938. He penetrated the Nanda Devi sanctuary with Eric Shipton in 1934, and in 1936 he went on to lead an Anglo-American expedition to Nanda Devi. With the support of a team which included Peter Lloyd and H. Adams Carter, Tilman and Noel Odell succeeded in making the first ascent of the 7,816 metres (25,643 ft) mountain, which remained the highest summit climbed by man until 1950.

In 1939, Tilman was the first man to attempt climbing in the remote and unexplored Assam Himalaya, exploring the Southern approaches of Gori Chen, 6538 metres, before his team succumbed to malaria. In 1947 he attempted Rakaposhi, then made his way to Kashgar to join up with Eric Shipton in a lightweight attempt on Muztagh Ata, 7546 metres, which nearly succeeded. On his way back to India, he detoured through Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor to see the source of the river Oxus. During his extensive exploration of the areas of Langtang, Ganesh and Manang in Nepal in 1949, Tilman was the first to ascend Paldor, 5896 metres, and found the pass named after him beyond Gangchempo.