Call me morbid (everyone else does), but there's something that really fascinates me about mountaineering disasters. Since I first borrowed my Dad's copy of Into Thin Air years ago and devoured it in less than 12 hours, I've been hooked. A fictionalised account is even better, since it didn't actually happen and I won't end up being sad about the tragedy. Throw into that my favourite genre of fiction - a spooky ghost story, and I was SOLD on this book before I'd even read the back.
1935. Having just cancelled his wedding, Stephen joins his brother Kits' expedition to Himalayan peak Kangchenjunga as a last minute replacement medic. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of the doomed expedition of their heroes thirty years earlier, the party of five Englishmen and their Sherpas set off up the South West face. The higher they get, the more dangerous the mountain becomes, but is it the altitude sickness causing confusion and hallucinations, or something altogether more sinister...?
Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world, and has a fearful reputation, even among the Himalayan giants. Its staggering 20% fatality rate has been attributed to its legendary status as home to Dzö-nga, the Kangchenjunga Demon. By the time it was successfully summitted by Joe Brown (who's autobiography will probably show up on here at some point) and George Band 67 years ago this week (I'd like to say I planned this but I'm not that organised), most of the summit attempts it had seen had ended in death and disaster. Given all this, and the fact that one of the earliest attempts was even led by the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, this mountain is the perfect setting for a high altitude horror.
This is a good old fashioned ghost story combining the supernatural creepiness of being watched by something not altogether human with the very real horrors of high altitude mountaineering. Mountains have this otherworldly quality about them - even in the relatively tame peaks of Snowdonia, it's incredibly eerie when you're on a route away from the main tracks and the clouds come down, the fog rolls in and you and your belay partner could be the only people left in the world. I can't imagine what that's like when you really are miles and miles away from humanity, beyond exhausted in a literal life and death situation, but Thin Air does a pretty good job of painting that picture, the atmosphere is fantastic. It's definitely one of those books that can make you feel chilly on a sunny day. Altitude sickness can cause confusion, memory loss and hallucinations anyway, which adds a fantastic element of unreliable narration - Is Stephen really being stalked by something supernatural, or is it the lack of oxygen coupled with his own insecurities that are scrambling his brain? There is a scene (you'll know it when you get to it) that I hear took some people out of the moment, but I loved it for the mundanity and ambiguity of it, something that could have been just as much grounded in the reality of altitude sickness as the paranormal. Regardless of your opinion on that, the climax and the mystery reveal is absolutely chilling (pun not intended), and stuck with me for a while afterwards.
One of the biggest strengths of this book is the sibling dynamic. Kits is everything that Stephen is not - the rich, charismatic, successful older brother that Stephen can never live up to. Even so, Stephen was a very likeable narrator, and it's easy to side with him and view Kits as the villain here. Paver does a really good job of capturing the powerful mixed emotions that can plague a sibling relationship. My personal favourite part of the whole book though is the incredibly niche subgenre it fits into - "white imperialists brush off the local wisdom and then suffer the consequences" - I never get tired of that storyline.
This is definitely one of my top picks so far for 2022. Prepare to be spirited away to a wind battered tent at 6000m, keep yourself warm and try not to think about what might be waiting for you beyond the confines of your nylon sanctuary as you dig into this wonderfully creepy ghost story.
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