PEAK FREAKS MOUNTAINEERING EXPEDITION ROUTE MAPS

Around Annapurna Trek Map

Nepal Guidebooks

• Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya by Stan Armington, eighth edition of the most complete guide to trekking routes in Nepal
• Lonely Planet Nepal - 5th edition, by Tony Wheeler and Hugh Finlay, is a complete guidebook to Nepal.
• Trekking in Nepal: A Traveler's Guide, by Stephen Bezruchka, has cross-cultural suggestions and detailed information about how to organise a backpacking or lodge trek. There are many route descriptions that include walking times.
• Travelers Tales - Nepal, Stories and anecdotes by those who have lived in and visited Nepal, including Jimmy Carter, Jeff Greenwald and Broughton Coburn.
• The Trekking Peaks of Nepal by Bill O'Conner
• Mount Everest National Park: Sagarmatha Mother of the Universe by Margaret Jefferies
• Guide to Royal Chitwan National Park by Margaret Jefferies and Hemanta Mishra
• Trekking in the Everest Region by Jamie McGuinness
• Trekking in the Annapurna Region by Bryn Thomas
• Insight Guides: Nepal

Mountains, Mountainering & Fiction

• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
• The Seven Mountain Travel Books published by the Seattle Mountaineers, which contains Nepal Himalaya by H W Tilman. It's a delightful book filled with Tilman's dry wit and describes the first treks in Nepal in 1949 and 1950.
• Escape from Kathmandu by Kim Stanley Robinson is an off-the- wall romp around Nepal. There's an effort to free a captured yeti, an illegal ascent of Everest with a reincarnate lama and an encounter with Jimmy Carter.
• The Ascent of Rum Doodle, by W E Bowman, is the classic spoof of mountaineering books. It's a good diversion after reading a few expedition accounts that take themselves too seriously.
• Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer

Natural History & Culture

• Birds of Nepal, by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp & Tim Inskipp
• Nepali Aama: Life Lessons of a Himalayan Woman, by Broughton Coburn, is an account of a US Peace Corps volunteer's encounters with an elderly Gurung woman. Coburn later took her on a trip to the US; this trip is described in a sequel, Aama in America: A Pilgrimage of the Heart.
• Sherpas: Reflections on Change in Himalayan Nepal by James F. Fisher

Language

• Nepal Phrasebook, by Mary-Jo O'Rourke and Bimal Man Shrestha is a handy phrasebook with a good section on trekking.
• Tibetan Phrasebook, by Sandup Tsering is useful to have along in Mustang, Dolpo and on the trek to Mt Kailas.
• Nepali for Trekkers, by Stephen Bezruchka, is a Nepali phrase book with a good tape.

Medicine

• Medicine for Mountaineering & Other Wilderness Activities, by James A Wilkerson, is an outstanding reference book for the layperson. It describes many of the medical problems typically encountered in Nepal. One copy of this book should accompany every trekking party.
• Where There is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook, by David Werner, is also a good layperson's medical guide with lots of application to Nepal.
• Mountain Sickness: Prevention, Recognition, and Treatment, by Peter Hackett - an American Alpine Club publication by the authority on high altitude medicine.

Mustang and Western Nepal

• Stones of Silence: Journeys in the Himalaya by George B. Schaller
• The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen
• Karnali Under Stress Livelihood Strategies and Seasonal Rhythms in a Changing Nepal Himalaya, by Barry C. Bishop
• East of Lo Monthang: In the Land of Mustang by Peter Matthiessen & Thomas Laird
• The Last Forbidden Kingdom: Mustang, Land of Tibetan Buddhism by Clara Marullo & Vanessa Boeye
• Trans-Himalayan Traders: Economy, Society, and Culture in Northwest Nepal by James F. Fisher

HIMALAYAN HIGH ALTITUDE SPECIALISTS since 1983