This is quite the marvellous book. I did not know about this until I picked it up recently, and it is quite an unknown gem. The tales of the early explorers is quite stirring indeed.
He has a knack of pulling out the stories of unknown people; people who have lived stirring lives and bringing them back to life.
While the Himalayas may seem to be much more explored nowadays, than before, they are quite the magnificent creations of Nature, and the earlier explorers seem to have treated them with more respect than we do nowadays.
The tales seem romantic, in a way. And, maybe this is good. Many of us fear to go where these men went, and I have to say that the Western world's discovery of the Himalayas does make for a great story. ( )

An account of the various, characters, eccentrics and imperial servants who travelled, surveyed, explored and fought as mercenaries in the Western Himalayas, 1820-75. ( )