An enormous range 1,500 miles long, the Himalayas rise in the monsoon-drenched jungles north of Myanmar to sweep in a great arc of snow and ice northwest along the border of India and Tibet through Bhutan, Sikkim, and Nepal up to the dusty glaciers of the Karakoram on the remote desert frontier between Pakistan and China. From the plains of India, the mountains appear as luminous tracings on the far blue sky, wisps of light hinting at another world far above ours. As one approaches, they dwindle behind intervening hills to reappear in more substantial form in flashes of white, glimpsed now and then through the opening of a dark green valley. From the vantage point of a high ridge gained by an arduous climb, they emerge sharp and solid against the horizon, their glaciers glistening in the sun, too brilliant for eyes to bear.