No Tigers in the Hindu Kush

In the 1950s, Philip Tranter and three companions set out from Scotland in a Land Rover on an expedition of more than 6,000 miles to Nuristan and the little-known central Hindu Kush. Their principal objective is Koh-i-Krebek, a mountain of roughly 20,500 feet that has been climbed only once. They plan a new approach from the south, hope to ascend other unclimbed summits and intend to map terrain for which reliable surveys do not yet exist.

The journey becomes a record of exploration as well as mountaineering. The party climbs Koh-i-Krebek and nine other major peaks, identifies and names further summits, and establishes the existence of a striking rock-and-ice chain they call the Rum Mountains after the Hebridean island whose peaks they resemble. Nigel Tranter relates the practical hardships of overland travel, uncertain routes, altitude and severe weather alongside the exhilaration of entering landscapes largely unknown to Western climbers. The result is non-fiction: an energetic account of Scottish expeditionary ambition, companionship and geographical discovery on the high roof of Asia.