A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

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setting in motion a legendary journey from Mayfair to Afghanistan, and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, north-east of Kabul. If the ironic and understated title alone didn’t allude to Newby’s comical approach (a “short” walk), then certainly chapter titles like “Birth of a Salesman” and “Death of a Salesman” would. The next day they try to ascend a 70 degree ice slope, reaching the ridge after five hours, not the two they had estimated.

over the grass towards us at a tremendous pace, dozens of them” in what was then described as them giving “…an extraordinary impression of being out of the past” Newby tells of them finding Carless’ telescope. After that, onwards to Tehran, where Newby's wife flies back to England and Newby and Carless continue on what really is the trip of a lifetime. We understand that not everyone can donate right now, but if you can afford to contribute, we promise it will be put to good use.Walking in the heat causes the local people to insult them, and makes their drivers angry, which does not make negotiating their pay any easier. The title, of course, is a fine example of Newby's habitual self-effacement, since his journey--which included a near-ascent of the 19,800-foot Mir Samir--was anything but short.

It is an autobiographical account of his adventures in the Hindu Kush, around the Nuristan mountains of Afghanistan, ostensibly to make the first mountaineering ascent of Mir Samir. All Hugh’s language skills in Persian and limited Pathan are of little help with the Tajik tribal communities pass through. Written in 1956, this travelogue is filled with self deprecatory humor and British wit that could often take away the focus from the magnitude of the trip undertaken across free Afghanistan.Very English, very much tongue in cheek, resulting in the most terrible of circumstances being described as only minor annoyances along the way. The two travelers eventually set their sights on Mir Samir, a 19,000-foot peak in the Hindu Kush range in northeastern Afghanistan. This is the unbelievable tale of 2 Englishmen who try to make a first ascent of a 19,000 ft mountain in the 1950s.