Tag: mountaineering

Early Days in the Range of Light

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Arnold, Daniel. Early Days in the Range of Light: encounters with legendary mountaineers. Counterpoint, 2009.

Reason read: In honor of nature.

What makes Early Days in the Range of Light so special is that Arnold not only follows in the footsteps of great naturalists and mountaineers from 1864 to 1931, he truly wants to be in their company. He says of one excursion, “I joined their little camp, too, as best I could with 143 years between us” (p 11) and “They sat on top for an hour or so, and I shared their seat for half that time” (p 216). He imagines where each adventurer slept, ate, and placed every toehold while climbing majestic mountains. There is a romance to Arnold’s writing; a deep appreciation for the California mountains and the ghosts that linger there.
Having just spent three short days exploring the wonders of Yosemite, I could picture every landmark Arnold mentioned: Half Dome, Yosemite Fall, Glacier Point, El Capitan, I could go on. Early Days in the Range of Light is probably my favorite book I have read this year.

I love it when a book teaches me something unexpected. The art of Bolton Coit Brown is fantastic and I had never heard of him before. Joseph LeConte spent sixteen years to map the entire Sierra Range in comprehensive detail, the first of its kind. Naming a mountain peak after your institution of education was a thing.

Lines I liked, “But I have begun to see the limitations imposed by the lines we draw” (p 181) and “The mountains have a way of propagating human echoes” (p 244).

Natalie Merchant connection: Every time a man left his family to climb a mountain or spend days hiking in the wilderness I thought of the line, “Can you love the land and love me, too?” from Cowboy Romance.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (p 64).

K2

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Viesturs, Ed and David Roberts. K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain. Read by Fred Sanders. Random House Audio, 2010.
Viesturs, Ed and David Roberts. K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain. Broadway Books, 2009.

Reason read: in honor of National Writing Month I chose a nonfiction.

It needs to be said that K2 may be the second highest mountain in the world, but it is arguably the most dangerous mountain to summit. Beyond unpredictable weather and inhospitable traverses, language barriers, varying climbing skills (and, let’s be honest, knowledge), and clashing egos of the climbers make the mountain even more treacherous. Viesturs and Roberts cover six different campaigns to climb K2. At times these campaigns are confusing to read about because they include details from other mountain climbs (like Everest) and the timelines jump around.
The most enjoyable passages were when Viesturs and Roberts outlined the changed in technology and climbing gear. It makes earlier successes of summitting K2 even more impressive. More on that later.

Confessional: this may be just me, but I got the feeling Viesturs was jealous of more successful climbers. The written attempts at modesty ring a little insincere especially when he is constantly inserting his own experiences into the narrative of successful summits that were achieved before he was even born. For example: noting his personal record of traversing 150 miles on cross-country skis when describing the 360 miles the 1938 team had to cover just to get the expedition to climb K2 started. So what? I honestly thought he could not help but insert himself in every campaign, no matter how long ago. The humble brag made me think of Greg Mortenson and his expeditions. I guess the moral of the story is you have to have some kind of ego to survive climbing 8,000 feet into the clouds. But more than the ego was Viesturs apparent disdain for people who want to be first at whatever (first man to climb without oxygen, first woman to climb without a Sherpa…first whatever). Viesturs says a first whatever is not a good enough reason to climb a mountain, but yet he calls the first to get to KS in winter a “triumph.” Seems contradictory to me.
Even worse than the humble bragging and contradictory beliefs, this is the sentence that shocked me the most, “For me, it would be a sad turn of events if helicopters could pluck stranded climbers off the highest summits (p 319). Why? Don’t you mean it would be sad turn of events if inexperienced people climbed only because they banked on a helicopter rescue? To me, it would be a sad turn of events if helicopters could drop people off at the summit. Viesturs honestly seems disappointed that “outsiders” could come to your rescue. Isn’t a helicopter just another advancement in safety like the technological advances of climbing gear, tents, clothing, willow wands, and oxygen supply?

Author fact: in 1992 Ed Viesturs climbed K2 and kept a diary of that expedition. Viesturs also wrote No Shortcuts to the Top. For the Book Lust Challenge I am not reading anything else by Viesturs or Roberts.

Book trivia: K2 has two sections of photography: one in black and one and a latter one in full color.

Playlist: “Wreck of the Old 97” and Ezio Pinza.

Nancy said: Pearl did not say anything specific about K2 except to describe the premise.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (p 64).

May Has Her Reasons

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This is the first month since September that I don’t have some kind of race looming. It feels weird to not worry about the run. I guess I can concentrate on the books:

Fiction:

  • Landfall: a Channel Story by Nevil Shute – in honor of the month the movie was released.
  • Main Street by Sinclair Lewis – in honor of Minnesota becoming a state in May (AB).
  • Bruised Hibiscus by Elizabeth Nunez – on honor of the Pan Ramjay festival held in May.
  • Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend – in honor of Mother’s Day.

Nonfiction:

  • Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer – in honor of the failed Mount Everest climb in May 1994.

Series continuations:

  • Jade Island by Elizabeth Lowell – to continue the series started in April in honor of Lowell’s birth month.
  • Warding of Witch World by Andre Norton – to continue the series started in March to honor the month of Norton’s passing.

Something new! I just discovered archive dot org! They are brilliant! I have been able to find a bunch of the books I have on my Challenge list, including two for this month. That means I will be able to leave the print at home and still read on my lunch break!