The Big Open: On Foot Across Tibet's Chang Tang - Hardcover

Rick Ridgeway

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792265602 ISBN 13: 9780792265603

Publisher: National Geographic, 2004

Synopsis

On foot and on their own, four adventurers brave the challenges of nature on a 275-mile trek through one of the most beautiful—and most remote—regions of the world.

About this title

About the Author

Rick Ridgeway is a mountaineer, writer, and businessman who currently serves as Patagonia’s vice president of environmental affairs. His books include The Shadow of Kilimanjaro: On Foot across East Africa, The Big Open: On Foot across Tibet’s Chang Tang, and The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2, an account of his experience as one of the first Americans to climb the second-highest mountain in the world.

Galen Rowell (1940–2002) was an internationally celebrated photographer, mountaineer, and author. The recipient of an Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography, he was a respected writer with 18 books and numerous magazine articles to his name. His work was frequently featured in National Geographic, Life, Sports Illustrated, and Outside.

Conrad Anker is a world-renowned mountaineer who has summited Everest three times and climbed many of the other challenging heights around the world. Best known for having discovered the body of early twentieth-century adventurer George Mallory on Everest in 1999, Anker is captain of the North Face Athlete Team and continues to inspire with his climbing prowess and his thoughtful dedication to the people of the Himalaya. He is the author of The Lost Explorer, about finding Mallory, and the primary coauthor of National Geographic's The Call of Everest.

Reviews

Adventure writer Ridgeway (The Shadow of Kilimanjaro) crafts an urgent, poetic narrative as he guides readers across Tibet’s barren and treacherous northern plateau in search of the calving grounds of the chiru, an endangered antelope. Along with his three companions-late nature photographer Galen Rowell, Conrad Anker, who wrote the foreword, and Jimmy Chin-the seasoned mountaineer traces the female chiru’s 200-mile migration route. The bulk of the story focuses on the Chang Tang’s natural splendor and the adverse conditions the group faced while lugging 200 pounds of food, water and photographic equipment on aluminum rickshaws at soaring altitudes. "To conserve batteries," Ridgeway writes, "everyone but Conrad turns off their headlamps. In the east a fingernail of moon glows through a reef of clouds. We are traveling at a compass bearing of 30 degrees, and I assume that Conrad, like me, is using the stars in the sky to maintain our course." But Ridgeway also offers a thoughtful regional history and an affecting description of the complex human struggle surrounding the rampant poaching of chiru and the illegal trade in their pelts (their fur is woven into shahtoosh, an ultrafine and precious wool). The group’s mission is ultimately successful: the Chinese government plans to create a national preserve based on their discovery. The international effort to save the Tibetan antelope and the "big open" steppe it inhabits elevates the narrative beyond the usual extreme travel tour to an enthralling and hopeful height. Color photo insert not seen by PW.
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Edition details

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792265602
• ISBN 13: 9780792265603
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304