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With his
life literally hanging from a sleder rope over a crevasse near the top
of a Himalayan mountain, a young man relives in his mind a relentless two-year
physical and spiritual test as a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote mountain
village of Nepal
Combining the elements of adventure story, travel log, and personal confession, this absorbing account describes a wrenching experience that belies the idealistic expectation of many Peace Corps volunteers.
Following a two-year stint as a science and mathematics teacher in a Nepalese village, Phil Deutschle sets off alone on a three-month expedition to conquer Pharchamo, 20,580 feet high, which has claimed several lives and is his final goal in the Himalayas.
This trek forms the framework of the book, and into it Deutschle weaves the story of his experiences over the previous two years in a series of sharply etched, swiftly moving, often humorous anecdotes.
Deutschle is not starry-eyed about Nepal and its people or, least
of all, about the mission of the 
Peace
Corps. He vividly describes events that are both horrible and poignant:
being charged by a rhinoceros, the awful fascination of watching a corpse
burn on a furneral pyre, the struggle to save a child's life, scaling a
Himalayan peak higher than Mount McKinley (the highest mountain in North
America). Despite his difficulties, he steels himself to stay one
year, then the full two years, and, imperceptibly, grows so attached to
the village that he leaves it in tears.
Mourning the "small death" of his departure, confused about his identity as an American, and feeling more alienated than before, he sets off on a final, reckless, solo climb of Mount Pharchamo, hardly caring whether he survives. Apathetic from lack of oxygen and from his own malaise and only when his life literally hangs on a slender rope, does he overcome despair and make a gigantic effort to save himself.
The two parts of the book--the emotional challenge of the village
and physical challenge of the climb--come together in a triumphant affirmation
of life.
ISBN 0-87663-471-4 Hardback
Universe Books, U.S.A.
ISBN 0-946983-08-9 Hardback
Bradt Publications, U.K.
Paperback Bradt Publications,
U.K.
The Two Year Mountain is out of print (sold out),
but some second-hand copies may be available through the Barnes and Noble
web site. Try this link: