Beneath Blossom Rain

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Beneath Blossom Rain

Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World

Kevin Grange

Outdoor Lives Series

352 pages
36 illustrations, 1 map

Paperback

April 2011

978-0-8032-3433-8

$19.95 Add to Cart
eBook (EPUB)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

April 2011

978-0-8032-6958-3

$19.95 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

April 2011

978-0-8032-3538-0

$19.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

In a remote kingdom hidden in the Himalayas, there is a trail said to be the toughest trek in the world—twenty-four days, 216 miles, eleven mountain passes, and enough ghost stories to scare an exorcist.
 
In 2007 Kevin Grange decided to acquaint himself with the country of Bhutan by taking on this infamous trail, the Snowman Trek. He was thirty-three, at a turning point in life, and figured the best way to go at a crossroad was up. Against a backdrop of Buddhist monasteries and soaring mountains, Grange ventured beyond the mapped world to visit time-lost villages and sacred valleys. In the process, recounted here with a blend of laugh-out-loud humor, heartfelt insight, and acute observation, he tested the limits of physical endurance, met a fascinating assortment of characters, and discovered truths about faith, hope, and the shrouded secret of blossom rain.
 
 
Beneath Blossom Rain, Grange’s account of his journey, packs an adventure story, a romantic twist, and a celebration of group travel into a single entertaining book. The result is the ultimate journey for any traveler, armchair or otherwise. Along with high adventure, it delivers an engaging look at Bhutan—a country that governs by a policy of Gross National Happiness and that many regard as the last Shangri-La.

Watch a book trailer.

Author Bio

Kevin Grange is an award-winning freelance writer who has written for Backpacker Magazine, National Parks Magazine, and the Orange County Register, among others. He has been to Bhutan four times and has completed the Snowman Trek three times, including twice as a guide. A native of New Hampshire, he currently lives in California.

Praise

"A highly readable journey of one man's renewed lease on life."—Kirkus Reviews

"Beneath Blossom Rain succeeds in merging travelogue with personal contemplation, allowing the armchair traveler to share both the physical and personal journey and taking them beyond a geographic place to a more philosophical one."—Tim Gebhart, blogcritics.org

“Entertaining. . . . [Grange] writes well of the beauty he encounters.”—Michael J. Ybarra, Wall Street Journal

"For an immersion in many things Bhutanese, this is the book for you, part of the University of Nebraska Press's excellent Outdoor Lives Series."—Richard West, Everett Potter's Travel Report

"The lure of legends and the allure of mountains have possessed the human race for eons. Kevin Grange's remarkable debut, Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World, merges the myth of the Yeti and the tangible Himalayan mountains into a tension-filled journey through Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon."—Barb Teed, Rain Taxi

"Beneath Blossom Rain, Grange's account of his journey, packs an adventure story, a romantic twist, and a celebration of group travel into a single entertaining book. The result is the ultimate journey for any traveler, armchair or otherwise."—Sandy Amazeen, Monsters and Critics

Table of Contents

No TOC, 35 numbered chapters

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