Pete Takeda

At some point during the inhumanly cold Himalayan winter straddling 1965 and 1966, a peculiar collection of box-shaped objects one sprouting a six-foot, insect-like antenna plummets nine thousand feet down the sheer flanks of a remote peak. Ripped from its moorings by an avalanche, the jumbled apparatus slides down a funnel-shaped hourglass of hard snow and shoots over a black cliff band, careening a vertical distance six times the height of the Empire State building. The boxes come to rest on the glacier at the mountain's base. One, an olive-drab casing the size of a personal computer, begins to sink. Then, trailing a robotic dogtail of torn wires, it slowly burns through the snow, melting into solid blue glacial ice, eventually disappearing beneath the surface, and never seen again.

No one actually witnessed this event. But as you read these words, nearly four pounds of plutonium locked in the glacier's dark unknowable heart are almost certainly moving ever closer to the source of the Ganges River.

Eye at the Top of the World, provides a harrowing present-day account of Takeda's expedition to solve the mystery of Nanda Devi.

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[thegoldengriff]

actually, I've read the book and I'm sad to say that I thought it sucked. In one particularly terrible passage, he describes his diarrhea on the mountain in excruciating detail

[theev1]

This is actually a true story. The American who led the trek was Robert Schaller.

[xxyox]

Pete, that is the gayest story I have ever heard. What was the device for-monitoring the bong smoke levels around your campfire? Sounds like you were able to scam some sponsors out of some cash for the Nanda Kat trip though. So you have that going for ya-which is nice.

[yuvid1]

I would like to meet this guy. I envy him. He made a teriffic adventure for himself and then wrote a book about it. It doesn't matter that there was 4 pounds of plutonium or one pound. It is still quite a tale. I will get the book.

[terrylovepresents]

I like the beginning sequence. The video of being on the mountain are very good. I need to get the book now.