Publication date:
08 February 2010Length of book:
216 pagesPublisher
Lyons PressISBN-13: 9781599217949
A classic in the genre of mountain literature—with a new preface by the author
Rising more than 20,000 feet into the Alaskan sky is Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. In this collection of exhilarating and stunning narratives, Jonathan Waterman paints a startlingly intimate portrait of the white leviathan and brings to vivid life men and women whose fates have entwined on its sheer icy peak.
"Stratospherically the finest in the genre. With this book, Waterman has earned a place alongside such great modern American mountain writers as David Roberts and Jon Krakauer." --Greg Child, author of Thin Air, from the Foreword
"A mountaineering classic, not only because it takes as its subject the nation's highest mountain but also because Waterman writes with unusual vision and spirit . . . Striking not a single false note . . . this is a strong, mature work by a gifted writer." --Booklist
"Taut understated prose captures the commitment of dedicated climbers." --Publishers Weekly
"Tales from the mean side of Denali, from a freelancer with a reputation for writing fine climbing stories . . . Arresting . . . A pleasure to read." --Kirkus Reviews
"A fine writer with a profound appreciation of what towering mountains are . . . this is a book about the high mountains written by a real mountain man." --James Michener
"A magnificent book, beautifully written, a superb delineation, in the broadest sense, of one person's relationship to landscape." --Ann Zwinger
"Masterful storytelling . . . There is climbing in this book, but remarkably it is not a book about climbing, any more than A River Runs Through It was a book about fishing. Waterman the writer resembles that other Alaskan adventurer, Jack London. But in his storytelling, in the way he renders non-fiction close to fiction with its alien and thoughtful beauty, he descends more directly from Norman Maclean . . . He is our Ishmael, the eloquent witness to a profound journey." --Jeff Long, Boulder Camera
"Bewitching. It was an honor to read this eyes-open chronicle of being beaten to a psychological pulp and then reborn." --American Alpine Journal
"Poetic and powerful--a testimony to both the man and the mountain." --Dennis Eberl
"Personal, intense, gripping . . . a compelling book. He is a serious writer, daring to take up the challenge of avoiding hackneyed prose in telling about fear, cold, wind and such wondrous beauty as the aurora shining on the mountain." --Bill Hunt, Alaska