The Moth and the Mountain

The Moth and the Mountain by Ed Caesar. We were in a book store a few weeks ago and i saw a book titled 'The Moth and the Mountain'. My first thought was I wonder if the moth is a Dehavalland moth. I picked up the book and it was about the plane! The plane of the title was a Gypsy Moth, and the mountain is Everest.

I 1933 this crazy englishman decided he would fly from England to Everest and climb the mountain solo. He did not know how to fly and was not a mountaineer.

But, he bought a used Gyspy Moth, took flying lessons for two months and the flew all the way to the border of Nepal. There he could not get permits to go further so he disguised himself as an Indian priest and walked the rest of the way to Everest. He actually got pretty far up the mountain, but on his second try he died of exposure. But it is a great story and so funny that Dehavalland biplane was a big part of it.