Jamling Tenzing Norgay & Broughton Coburn, Touching My Father Soul

Jamling Tenzing Norgay and Broughton Coburn have produced simply one of the best accounts of an Everest expedition ever written - Touching My Father Soul. We are so used to reading about the excitement of preparation, first impressions of base camp, the fear of the icefall, the cwm furnace, pulling up the Lhotse face, the col wasteland, etc etc etc ad nauseum. Well, now here's a book with more depth. There is plenty of adventure here also; the expedition is one of the most famous ever: it was featured in the IMAX Everest film in which we saw the turmoil and stress caused the team members by the onslaught during that fateful 1996 season publicized in books by pretty much everyone who was near the mountain; Krakauer, Boukreev, Wethers, etc. There was a lot of bandwaggoning and repetitive dealings with the same story, but thankfully Tenzing has not fallen into the same trap and his personal struggle takes on an additional dimension; this is a pilgrimage set in faith and in a son's love and respect for his father. This is a family affair and we are honoured guests. The spiritual element is reintroduced into the heart of the Everest story from someone who sees mountains and gods as one and the same, not as the typical Westerner's observation of native ritual superstitions and hollow blessings, (with perhaps a few exceptions committed to print: the first being Captain John Noel who more than appreciated the debt owed his Tibetan and Nepali companions). Indeed, Chomolongma once again is the home of the Goddess arbitrator passing judgment over the expeditions groveling at her feet. There is an air of putting the record straight, of bringing the Sherpa community back in to the climbers' guild where they truly belong rather than in their historical role as porters and coolies. "Touching My Father Soul" can touch all our souls. It is a valuable, if not vital, contribution to the Everest literature.