Essential Question – How are the actions of major characters in the novel influenced by the Bon religion and Sherpa culture? What struggles are involved with undergoing a feat like climbing Mount Everest?

Although this unit was created for the fiction novel Peak, I believe it could be easily adapted to any novel or non-fiction book about climbing Everest.  Other possible titles to use are:

Into Thin Air, Touch the Top of the World, Dark Summit, High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed , The Boy Who Conquered Everest: The Jordan Romero Story , No Shortcuts to the Top

Ongoing Activities

• Before starting the story all students should be given a map of Peak's journey from Katmandu to the summit of Mount Everest. Students are encouraged to track Peak's progress throughout the novel. It's important that they understand that Mount Everest is on the border between Nepal and Tibet.

• Students should also be keeping track of the characters as they are introduced in the story.  They can do this in a journal or notebook.

• Create a word wall in the shape of Mount Everest with key words and new vocabulary from the story.

Activities at Specific Points in the Novel

• At the end of the chapter titled “Bangkok,” after we learn that Peak will travel to Nepal break students into groups for a 3 day research project, in which they will do research on the geography of the area that the main character is headed to.

Group topics could include: features of the land (Katmandu to Tibetan Plateau), flora and fauna (Himalaya), indigenous people (Nepal), politics and religion (Nepal, Tibet and China), history or Mount Everest, mountaineering keywords. 

Students will work in groups to create a poster and presentation for the class.  The goal is that the class gets a full picture of the setting of the story from this point forward.

• After Peak makes his statements about how important Sherpas and Porters are to the Western climbers, read excerpts from Tigers of the Snow (chapters 1 & 2), which discusses the role of Sherpas on the mountain. 

• After Team C leaves the group to climb in secret have a volunteer from your local REI, EMS, or boy scouts come in and demonstrate rock/ice climbing knot tying and other devices.  Discuss the rope as a metaphor.  What makes a strong rope team?  Are Yogi, Yash, Zopa, Sun-jo, and Peak a strong rope team?