Snow on the Equator

'To those who went to the War straight from school and survived it, the problem of what to do afterwards was particularly difficult.'For H.W. Tilman, the solution lay in Africa - gold prospecting, mountaineering and a 3,000-mile solo bicycle ride across the continent.Tilman was perhaps the greatest explorer of his time, a famed mountaineer and pioneering sailor who made first ascents throughout the Himalaya, attempted Everest, and sailed into the Arctic Circle. For Tilman, the goal was always to discover new places, to explore rather than conquer.Snow on the Equator chronicles Tilman's early adventures; his transition from East African coffee planter to famed mountaineer. After World War I, he moved to Africa, meeting Eric Shipton and beginning a hugely successful mountaineering partnership. He hunted game, experimented with mining and climbed Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro and Ruwenzori before embarking on a remarkable bicycle odyssey across Africa - recounted here in splendidly funny style.Tilman became one of the greatest of all travel writers. His writings are the works of a subtle and wry humourist with an ironic, yet cultured and committed world view. He is part of the great British tradition of comic writing - and there is nobody else quite like him.

About the Author :
Harold William ‘Bill’ Tilman (1898–1977) was among the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering mountaineer and sailor who held exploration above all else. Tilman joined the army at seventeen and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery during WWI. After the war Tilman left for Africa, establishing himself as a coffee grower. He met Eric Shipton and began their famed mountaineering partnership, traversing Mount Kenya and climbing Kilimanjaro. Turning to the Himalaya, Tilman went on two Mount Everest expeditions, reaching 27,000 feet without oxygen in 1938. In 1936 he made the first ascent of Nanda Devi—the highest mountain climbed until 1950. He was the first European to climb in the remote Assam Himalaya, he delved into Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor and he explored extensively in Nepal, all the while developing a mountaineering style characterised by its simplicity and emphasis on exploration. It was perhaps logical then that Tilman would eventually buy the pilot cutter Mischief—not with the intention of retiring from travelling, but to access remote mountains. For twenty-two years Tilman sailed Mischief and her successors to Patagonia, where he crossed the vast ice cap, and to Baffin Island to make the first ascent of Mount Raleigh. He made trips to Greenland, Spitsbergen and the South Shetlands, before disappearing in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1977.