Thirty Below by Cassidy Randall

 

WHO:  Grace Hoeman, Arlene Blum, Margaret Clark, Margaret Young, Faye Kerr, and Dana Isherwood...also known as 'the Denali Damsels'. 

WHAT:  "The harrowing and heroic story of the first all-women's ascent of Denali."

WHEN:  1970

WHY READ IT:  This is a compelling account of women who loved to climb at a time when mountaineering was a hyper-masculine, male-dominated sport sadly full of misogynistic men who did not believe that women belonged on any mountain. These six women were out to prove them wrong. And Randall does an excellent job of capturing their individual stories and personalities, portraying the time period they were living in, and relating their challenging ascent up Denali. It's as good as any mountaineering book I've read. I love reading these kinds of extreme adventures and was completely enthralled by this one. Denali is nearly as challenging to climb as Everest, especially back in the 70s, and these women's climb is full of drama, peril, suspense, and personal triumph. 

RATING:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

SIMILAR READS:

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson 

The Next Everest by Jim Davidson 

Left For Dead by Beck Weathers 

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer 

The Next Everest by Jim Davidson

 

First line:  We climbed the deadliest section of Everest at night.

From the blurb:

 "On April 25, 2015, Jim Davidson was climbing Mount Everest when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake released avalanches all around him and his team, destroying their only escape route and trapping them at nearly 20,000 feet. It was the largest earthquake in Nepal in eighty-one years and killed about 8,900 people. That day also became the deadliest in the history of Everest, with eighteen people losing their lives on the mountain.

"After spending two unsettling days stranded on Everest, Davidson's team was rescued by helicopter. The experience left him shaken, and despite his thirty-three years of climbing and serving as an expedition leader, he wasn't sure that he would ever go back. But in the face of risk and uncertainty, he returned in 2017 and finally achieved his dream of reaching the summit."

My thoughts:  I read Jim Davidson's previous climbing memoir, The Ledge, several years ago and have never forgotten it. It's a gut-wrenching and emotionally powerful read. His chronicle of climbing Mt. Everest is equally compelling. I love reading these kinds of books. And this one is richly detailed and descriptive, and honest, too. Davidson weaves in moments from his past that taught him valuable lessons that helped him on this difficult adventure. He writes about the importance of patience and persistence, hard work, inner resilience, dealing with grief and loss, choosing confidence over fear, and "focusing on the climb, not the drop". I highly recommend it. 

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

"I was breathing heavily as I dug through the soft surface snow to find the firm ice below. I drove in two ice screws and planted both axes above my stance before tying into them and shouting for Simon to come up. We were close to the serac barrier...I felt confident and at ease. We were a match for this route and I now knew that we would finish it. I felt a thrill at the knowledge that I was, at last, on the verge of achieving a first ascent, and a hard one at that."

In May 1985, Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, ascended the West Face of Siula Grande, a 21,000-foot peak in the Peruvian Andes. They navigated glaciers and ice fields, slept in snow holes, and struggled to avoid the deep crevasses hidden by snow. On their fourth day of climbing they reached the summit. But it was on their descent that things started to go wrong. Joe falls badly, breaking his right leg. Simon must then lower him by rope down the mountain, 300 feet at a time, a grueling and torturous task for both men. Then, when they've almost made it to the glacier below, Joe drops off an ice cliff. Dangling in mid-air 150-feet below Simon, he can't climb up or down. It's getting dark. A blizzard is kicking up. And, with no strength left in his frostbitten hands to pull Joe back up, Simon is forced to cut the rope tying them together. Joe falls into the yawning crevasse below. Simon is sure he is dead. But somehow, Joe survives. Even more amazing, he manages to find his way out of that crevasse, and then crawl and hop back down the mountain all alone to their camp.

"I was mesmerized by this beam of sunlight burning through the vaulted ceiling from the real world outside. It had me so fixated that I forgot about the uncertain floor below and let myself slide down the rest of the rope. I was going to reach that sunbeam. I knew it then with absolute certainty. ... In seconds my whole outlook changed. The weary frightened hours of night were forgotten, and the abseil which had filled me with such claustrophobic dread had been swept away. ... I could do something positive. I could crawl, and climb, and keep on doing so until I had escaped from this grave."

Simpson's inner resolve and what he had to do to get back down the mountain is a remarkable story of sheer grit and determination. I can't believe he lived to tell the tale. And what a story it is! It confirmed for me what I already knew:  I will NEVER attempt to climb some far off icy mountain peak. But I will continue to read about those who do from the comfort of my own couch.

Happy Reading!

Similar read:  The Ledge by Jim Davidson 

(This is another mountain adventure I loved.)