The Valley of Flowers

Pick it up: If you'd like to read a wonderful blend of nature writing and adventure writing, if you're fascinated by mountains and climbing literature, if you want to read about a remarkable place that few people have been in, and even fewer have written about.

This book was written in 1937. It's an account of several weeks that the author spent in one of the most stunningly beautiful places in the world.

Frank Smythe was a British mountaineer who was a member of the group that successfully scaled Mount Kamet (25,447 feet) in 1931. As the party descended after their successful climb, it was raining heavily, and they were wet and cold and tired. They descended into the Bhyundar valley and through the mist that surrounded them, they saw a patch of bright blue flowers, "a blue so intense, it seemed to light the hillside."

As they descended further, they saw that they were surrounded by flowers... primulas, androsaces, sasifrages, sedum, delphiniums, violets, wild roses, blue corydalis and many more. The Bhyundar valley, was the most beautiful place that any of them had ever seen. They camped in it for two days and remembered it afterward as The Valley of Flowers.

Smythe writes that he thought often about that incredible vision of the hillsides covered in flowers for years after he'd been there, and he longed to return. He finally had the chance in 1937.

He arranged to spend six weeks in the Bhyundar valley with four Tibetan porters to help him. This was not a typical Himalayan expedition. Smythe and his companions intended to do a bit of climbing, but this was not an expedition aimed at conquering a particular peak, it was supposed to be a holiday, at least for Smythe.

He planned to have several weeks of idle time, time spent walking, climbing, thinking, writing, and collecting plants and seeds...he'd become an avid gardener in the years after 1931, and there were other gardeners of his acquaintance who wanted to try their hand at growing some of the rare and wonderful flowers that grew in the high Himalaya.

He and his companions made the trek to Bhuyandar from Raniket and spent day after day among the mountains and the flowers, surrounded by awe inspiring views, and breathtaking beauty. Smythe writes so evocatively about what he saw and experienced in that time, that you can't help feeling like you're right there with him.  This is an incredible book about an incredible place that few people have been lucky enough to be in.

This is nature writing and adventure writing at its best. The author vividly captures the sheer joy of being in nature, the sensual pleasure of that vast open space, the fresh, clean, mountain air, the echoing and soul-satisfying silence, the solitude and the space to think, and to just be in a place of rare and wonderful beauty.