Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World

by Kevin Grange

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.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Asia, Adventure

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Kevin Grange is a firefighter paramedic in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He is the award-winning author of Wild Rescues: A Paramedic's Extreme Adventures in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton; Lights and Sirens: The Education of a Paramedic; and Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World. He has written for National Parks, Backpacker, Utne Reader, Yoga Journal, and the Orange County Register. He has worked as a park ranger and paramedic at Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Teton National Parks.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

My idea of the ideal vacation? Oceanfront on the Pacific or Caribbean, sun and plenty of cold drinks and reading material. A hammock is always an exquisite addition. What did Kevin Grange do in 2007? He embarked on what is billed as the toughest trek in the world, a 24-day horseshoe-shaped journey of 216 miles on foot through the Himalayan Mountains in Bhutan.

Granted, Grange and his fellow trekkers were accompanied by a seven-person support team, a kitchen tent and toilet tents and were served hot tea upon arising each morning and hot evening meals with silverware at a large table. Still, the trek is a daunting challenge. Not only are trekkers hiking nearly 10 miles a day, they traverse 11 high-mountain passes, seven over 16,000 feet. In addition to the risks inherent on at times precarious trails and from unpredictable weather, the height of the mountain passes makes altitude sickness a very real -- and potentially fatal -- danger. More people have climbed Mount Everest than have completed the Snowman Trek. Fewer than 120 people a year attempt the trek; less than 50 percent finish. Or, as one of Grange's fellow trekkers put it, "Everybody cries at some point on the Snowman Trek."

Were Beneath Blossom Rain: Discovering Bhutan on the Toughest Trek in the World , Grange's account of his journey, limited to its hazards, trials and tribulations, one could easily categorize it as an adventure travel tale for those who enjoy such reads. Fortunately. Grange's scope and journey were far broader. He does a fine job of showing readers the nature, history and landscape of Bhutan, as well as taking us to remote villages and monasteries (including an encounter with a "shit-faced" shaman who is plainly intoxicated when he comes to bless the group in a remote village). He is equally open about what is essentially a personal search for meaning.

As such, Beneath Blossom Rain combines the best of two other recently released works. Noted travel author Colin Thubron's To a Mountain in Tibet is somewhat more heavily philosophical account of his pilgrimage trek from Nepal to a Himalayan mountain in remote western Tibet. A search for meaning and an account of life in Bhutan, a country that actually measures Gross National Happiness and limits the number of tourists, is the focus of Lisa Napoli's Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth . Napoli's story, though, is set in Bhutan's capital and largest city, not Himalayan treks.

Two concepts help drive Grange on the trek. One is the western idea of Shangri-La. A friend who completed the Snowman Trek described a high-altitude village in a valley in remotest northern Bhutan as "the most beautiful, most mysterious and most otherworldly place I've ever been." It becomes Grange's personal idea of Shangri-La and motivates him along the trek. The other is a Tibetan and Bhutanese concept that inspired the book's title. In local folklore, an auspicious superstition surrounds blossom rain, the moment of rainbow light when it is raining and sunny at the same time. Bhutanese he asks about blossom rain provide no better than enigmatic answers about its significance and his desire to grasp the concept also animates his efforts. Beneath Blossom Rain becomes as much a journal of an internal trek as a Himalayan one, a tale in which we are even privy to Grange's ongoing debate with his "inner critic." We also learn with Grange that enlightenment may not always come in places or events we would suspect.

Grange occasionally falls into a few clichés ("like home, sleep felt far away") and platitudes ("A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"). Additionally, some of the conversations with his fellow trekkers and guides seem somewhat artificial, designed more to convey basic information to the reader that someone on the trek would already know. Still, Grange brings a light touch of humor and direct, conversational tone that outweighs these occasional foibles. More important, 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.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)

[Dennis Boccippio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was mostly enjoyable; if you're interested in the trek, by all means read it end to end; if you're interested in Bhutan, perhaps start elsewhere and find your way here. I read it along with several ahead of a trip there this fall.

One of the challenges with travel books such as these is there are only so many themes to pull from ... having done a couple of eco-trips and homestays (none so fierce as the Snowman Trek!) I can't claim to be an expert but have a fair sense of what there is to pull from:

1 - The trek / geography / experience itself: The book does a wonderful job here, telling the story of the trek with great detail and a good and evocative writing style. Very interesting (and very cool/impressive).

2 - One's fellow travelers: Again, nicely done. Grange captures the spirit of traveling with a group and his band of trekkers is described in enough detail to build the story, but not so much as to be intrusive.

3 - The locals one meets: Pretty good; obviously limited here as most of the time was spent hiking. I tend to be more interested in people than scenery so I might have liked more, but wouldn't hold this against the book.

4 - Snippets of the local history / culture / politics to provide "backstory": We get a highly romanticized view of Bhutan with selective emphasis on the positive and overmuch time on the Buddhism. From other books it's a fascinating culture that has both its pro's and its dark sides - we see none of the latter here, or the complexity of the country.

5 - Reflections on personal transformation associated with the travel: Probably the hardest to write, threading the narcissism line carefully (and following heavily trodden ground), and this is where the book stumbles (I hate to say this as the author has obviously opened up and shared experiences which were deeply meaningful to him). Overall these portions of the book feel like I would have enjoyed them much more, say, in my more angst-ridden 20s. They occur with enough frequency to be distracting and at times border on trite/naive. For the right audience at the right time, they'll probably resonate, but I wasn't that audience, and the storytelling mechanics here didn't converge to get me to connect or much care. A transformational story has to have a deeper connection to the "pre" state of the author as central character, and the book spends more time on nostalgic reminiscences of childhood than in describing a person whose transformation is emotionally engaging.

I wouldn't let the last note discourage folks interested in the trek from reading - the reflective passages can be gotten by, and the rest of the tale is well written and worth reading.

[LeeAnn Heringer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've seen some harsh reviews for this book, including one that called the author "a whiner". But having been born and raised in California, I can say that the main character of the book is an archetype of a type of lost boy, mid-thirty year old who doesn't know what they want to be when they grow up, looking for a spiritual center, that is free range here in California. (They never seem to be born here, but that's the beauty of California -- stay for 2 weeks and you're a local.) The companions he meets on the trip are very typical, in their atypical way, of who you would meet doing this kind of thing in that part of the world. There aren't a lot of surprises or aha moments in the book, but it's a good mildly self-conscious travelogue with interesting information about Bhutan.

This book is very much a slice of the place (Bhutan), a time (the first decade after the turn of the 21st century), and a person and I think it presents that slice very well. These are actually the kind of small personal stories that historians love to find a hundred years in the future (like the diaries of the pioneer wives crossing America in covered wagons) because of the well described raw details.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant travel read, which caused me to neglect several more edifying books that I had brought with me on vacation. 

Bhutan is a place where they are trying to avoid being run over by the juggernaut of modernity without becoming a totalitarian hermit kingdom. It’s interesting to check in every once in a while to see how they are doing. So far, so good: let’s hope that Bhutan can continue to generate benevolent philosopher-kings to lead the country.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: The author is a long-time friend of the family, so I had a particular reason to read and enjoy this. But for anyone interested in travel to remote places, this fills the bill. A simply told and convincingly authentic account of trekking through Bhutan.

[Ned Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a travelogue and peak under the tent of cultural Bhutan it was fascinating. As a journal of personal transformation it was so so.

[Sandy T. Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more than a book about travel in Bhutan. It is an adventure to just read it. Kevin, thank you for sharing your experiences. The end left me feeling similarly to Kevin...sad. It brought back memories of my trekking in Nepal and that was nothing like the Snowman trail. If you like an adventure you'll like this book. We are traveling to Bhutan next year and this book was a great intro to the country.

[Charlotte mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! And wish I were 30 years younger, so I too could do this trek. (The only one I've managed this life time was 33 years ago, the Around Annapurna, which I understand, pre earthquake & covid, had turned into a mob scene.)

[Dlmrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lets just say I am looking for 10k now to do the hike myself :)

[Robert Isenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, look: Kevin Grange seems like a really cool guy. I would love to hang out with Kevin. He seems friendly, genuine, upbeat, and go-getting. I would grab a drink or surf with Kevin. Actually, I would join Kevin for a long hike, I'm that certain that we'd get along well. He's the kind of fellow New Englander I really appreciate. I'm even glad he got to publish his book, because he clearly put a lot of heart into it. A part of me is glad I got to read his book, because I learned some tidbits about Bhutan and I like his outlook.

But "Beneath Blossom Rain" has some serious problems, starting with the title: Depending on how you define trek, the "Snowman Trail" is NOT REMOTELY the hardest trek in the world, and I'm astonished that someone who had the good fortune to befriend Kira Salak would claim it is. The Snowman Trail, as Grange describes it, sounds like absolute luxury: The route is well-trod, you travel in a group, and people carry your luggage and make your meals. By comparison, hiking the White Mountains (where Grange is from) for 30 days and carrying all your own gear is just as tough. The only problem (and it's a big problem) is the elevation. But Grange never had to worry about robbers, shifty guides, or even setting up his own tent. Yes, there's danger in being so remote, but you'd find the same danger in New York City, if you were in trouble no one could find you.

My hope is that some agent or editor forced his hand, and Grange fought this title as hard as he could. I can accept that the title is designed to sell books, and Grange went along with it, because [SPOILER ALERT] he'd lost his Disney fellowship and this book contract was a new lease on life. Cool. No problem.

Yet the other problem is much more systemic, and I'm surprised that no publisher intervened: Grange's prose is incredibly saccharine. I don't say this lightly. I thought I was the dreamiest, most sentimental writer of the 21st Century, but Grange blows me out of the water. Ever few paragraphs, Grange begins a sentence with, "Then I realized..." Or, "Suddenly it dawned on me that..." The moment he realizes something, prepare to eye-roll. Grange's epiphanies are a series of greeting card mottoes woven clumsily into the fabric of the story. His heart is in the right place, but that's the only thing that is. Every single person, place, and thing in Grange's story seems to deliver a well-packaged life lesson, some precious bit of wisdom about embracing life and spiritual mindfulness.

The bottom line is that Grange has a very nice vacation, he pushed himself physically, and he met some wonderful people. Distill this book into a 20,000 word essay, and it would make an excellent cover story for Harper's. There are some excellent passages, such as landing a plane on the most treacherous air strip in the world, or the history of a Bacchanalian Bodhisattva, or the struggles of a middle-aged guy from New Jersey with all the wrong gear. But so much of the book is verbal lard. His interaction with a beautiful German hiker is as tedious as your friend recounting every detail of a bad date. The dinnertime conversations are full of inside jokes, and although he shouldn't have bothered with them at all, instead he explains their origins and why they're funny. Every book he mentions is remedial high school literature. And the cliches are endless: You can bet that, when he's excited, he's as excited as a child on Christmas morni... Zzzzz...

Contrary to expectations, I *did* finish the book, even though I didn't really care about the ending. Grange's hackneyed quest to find the true meaning of "Blossom Rain" never interested me, nor did almost anything past page 100. It's hard to turn a commercial group-hike through a supra-happy nation into a dramatic story, and unfortunately, Grange didn't succeed. But again, reading between the lines, Grange himself was an enjoyable guide. You can tell that Grange is capable of writing a better book, if he just lays off the bad metaphors and weary pop culture references. I'm confident that a decent editor will make that possible. Writing a second book is tough. Not the toughest trek in the world, but definitely worth bragging about.

[Phillip · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me a half liter of beer and 0.3 liters of wine for me to be able to finish this book. The only reason I actually finished it was to give an honest and complete book review. I found myself cursing at the author while dissecting the horrendous writing style and structure. The author overuses commas, and in many cases, uses them, definitively, where they are not necessary, similar to this sentence, in its exactness. If this last sentence annoyed you, then do not even pick up the book. This is how it is written.

Furthermore, the author uses dashes instead of commas to extend run-on sentences. Instead of breaking up sentences to manage the flow of the story better, he uses them to interject unnecessary information about his thoughts, his past experiences as a child, and unrelated material. To make it worse, the author uses both excessive and unnecessary commas and dashes within the same sentence. To even further compound on this deplorable writing, he also uses parentheses. Put all three of these together and you have mess of letters all over the page.

I would expect someone who has a creative writing degree to write at least with an educated approach. Instead, the story is full of grammatical errors. I also would expect someone with this degree to use similes and allegories appropriately. How do you compare a yak with a half-ton first grader? The book is littered with unbearable and unrelated comparisons. Similes, allegories, and comparisons can be very connecting to a reader. However, he fails horribly at using them appropriately.

As for the story content, I felt like the author was telling me and not entwining me in his experience. For a trekking book, I expected something that would enthrall me and put me in his place. Instead of having the feeling that other books like “Into Thin Air”, “The Long Walk”, “Dead Lucky”, or “Without a Paddle” give you, the author only presents his experience as in a journal and doesn’t make this transcend to other readers.

There are other facets of the book that drove me to cursing and drinking. He has an inner critic psyche that is obnoxiously annoying which he gives dialogue in the book. The other trekkers all seemed the same. I could not decipher any of them from the others. He states the Snow man Trek is the hardest in the world, but all the gear is carried by a team, the tents prepared for him, meals cooked, and tea served in bed. Indeed the trek is physically demanding and at high altitude, but by no means is having tea served in his tent qualifying him for the hardest trek in the world. Finally, his writing about the German female one day behind on the trek is not only inflated but also just damn creepy. He might as well be comparing himself to a predator. I would like to see Ingrid’s interpretation of his book.

In the beginning and end of the book he states how he is failed at becoming a screenwriter and turned down by a Disney fellowship. The fact that he has a degree does not make him qualified. The best way I can describe how much I hated this book is by comparing it to some of the reviews. Some were better written than this acclaimed creative writing author. If one enjoys an 8th grade reading level and doesn’t catch all the poorly written material, then by all means read the book. If one is looking for a well written book, I would look elsewhere.

Here is the information about the publishing company (Nebraska University Publishing): We primarily publish nonfiction books and scholarly journals, along with a few titles per season in contemporary and regional prose and poetry. On occasion, we reprint previously published fiction of established reputation, and we have several programs to publish literary works in translation. Through our Bison Books imprint we publish general-interest books about the American West. Our primary mission, defined by the University through the Press Advisory Board of faculty members working in concert with the Press, is to find, evaluate, and publish in the best fashion possible, serious works of nonfiction.

[Heather Beach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin Grange's "Beneath Blossom Rain" is an extremely well written book and a wonderful introduction to the country of Bhutan, the Bhutanese people, their culture and the challenges of the 24 day, 216 mile Snowman Trek! Through his wonderful descriptions, I truly felt a part of the trek, "seeing" the varied and beautiful terrain, "meeting" the villagers along the way, "experiencing" the daunting task of hiking some of the very high mountain passes and "getting to know" his trekking companions as they shared stories over dinner each night. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!

After reading "Beneath Blossom Rain", I was able to travel to Bhutan and immediately felt that I had already been there....Kevin Grange's descriptions were so well done and accurate that I felt I was returning to a very familiar place - even with the scary landing at Paro!

I would highly recommend "Beneath Blossom Rain" - it is a fascinating book that immediately transports the reader to the magical country of Bhutan and takes you on a very challenging and interesting journey!!

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author goes on a grueling 3-week hike in Bhutan and tells us about the places, the people, and the insights he has, all of which are somewhat interesting, but he uses such basic, freshmen-college writing technique that it's like reading a dumbed-down adaptation of a better, longer work. It feels very Lifetime-movie in the telling, especially in his use of dialogue, little of which sounds real, and when he relates his epiphanies. This feels like a young adult version, but I'd love to read the grown-up version sometime.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed that the book was informative and provided valuable information in preparing me for my adventure on the Snowman Trek. However, I found Kevin to be somewhat irritating. I found myself rolling my eyes at his somewhat pretentious perspectives and also his cheesy 'revelations'. He did a nice job of humanizing a travel log, so I give him great credit for that and, as I mentioned first, lots of interesting information and facts about Bhutan.

[Yvonne Mcquilkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. It's descriptions of Bhutan's most remote high mountain area, and the growth of a group of nine intrepid trekkers. They accomplished the "Snowman Trek", which is different, yet equally as hard as climbing Everest. We are going to Bhutan in October, so I may have liked it better than the average reader.

[Tira · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was just ok. The dialogue is a bit corny in places and the writing a little labored, too nit picky in detail in my opinion. But, hey, this guy went on the "toughest trek in the world" while I sat in my living room and merely read about it. So who am I to say?

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, introspective book on one man's journey through the Bhutanese Himalayas. A little bit melodramatic and dull at points, but overall an interesting foray into the nation of Bhutan, a little known little Kingdom.

[Bill Leach · Rating 1 out of 5]

An uninspiring book. The author does a major trek, but it is not clear he did it to enjoy Bhutan. He talks mostly of his own concerns. Much of the content is banal. Definitely in the trekking as an accomplishment category.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful blow-by-blow description of a month-long, 216 mile hike at roughly 14,000 feet in the land of happiness. Grange has a wonderful, humorous ability to describe the people, yaks, food and sky with equal tenderness. A great introduction to a mysterious country.

[Tory · Rating 2 out of 5]

Terribly written!

[Keith Bennett · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blurb is heavy on 'toughest trek in the world', but turns out Grange was just walking within an organised group on a paid holiday. Jolly enough given that, but original adventure it is not.

[Sherry · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title says it all.

Nice read, not terribly exciting.

The toughest trek in the world is the Snowman Trek, 20 + days over many passes.