The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps
1891
The Crystal Hunters: A Boy's Adventures in the Higher Alps
1891
High in the Swiss Alps, a boy named Saxe dreams of crystals hidden in the glacier's heights. When he joins the experienced Richard Dale for a mountaineering expedition, he finds that the mountains demand more than courage: they demand wisdom, patience, and trust in those who know their dangers. Their guide, the formidable Melchior Staffeln, leads them through crevasses and across icy ridges where a single misstep can mean disaster. Along the way, they encounter other treasure seekers, each chasing their own Alpine fantasies. What begins as a boy's adventure becomes a story about the relationship between youthful eagerness and hard-won experience, between the impulse to climb ever higher and the mature knowledge of when to turn back. Fenn, a master of Victorian adventure, fills his narrative with breathtaking Alpine scenery, practical mountaineering wisdom, and the quiet drama of characters learning what they can trust in each other and in themselves. A tale of discovery in every sense: of crystals, of mountains, and of what it means to be brave.
