Social Climbers: Heaven for High Tea

by Chris Darwin (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1992

  $3.25

  This is the story of an eccentric expedition led by the author, a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, to hold the world's highest dinner party - on the summit of Peru's highest mountain, at 6769 metres and minus 37 degrees Celsius. Nine amateur climbers, including a 62-year-old grandfather, made the attempt, and only two of them had previous mountaineering experience. They had been warned about terrorism, blizzards, avalanches, frost-bite and altitude sickness, but were unprepared for other hardships which awaited them - loss of libido, a documentary crew led by an obsessed German philosopher, a love triangle and chronic flatulence. Nor did they foresee a catalogue of other tribulations, including malaria, bronchitis, giardia, piles, ripped shoulders, cracked ribs, hypothermia, pregnancy and a frozen bottle of red wine.