One of summer’s quiet pleasures is the chance to escape with a good book for some relaxed reading. Most book stores stock to the brim with paperback romance novels and fantasy fiction for the beach-going crowd – but what’s on the shelves for the would-be adventurer, facing the daunting challenge of a placid vacation with the family instead? There are plenty of new best-seller titles to choose from, but recently I’ve been getting the most pleasure by re-discovering old classics. Here are three of my all-time favorites:
K2: The Savage Mountain
Charles Houston/Robert Bates, McGraw-Hill 1954; Lyons Press 2009
Brevity is one quality frequently lacking in modern adventure stories – yet this book succeeds in recounting the epic American 1953 K2 expedition in a snappy 140 pages. In decided contrast to the big European siege assaults of the era, the trip was a lightweight venture undertaken by a tightly knit and well organized group of friends. K2 was unclimbed at the time, and they succeeded in establishing a high camp within spitting distance of the summit, only to be struck by a powerful storm. The ensuing descent quickly became an all out fight for survival. Houston and Bates alternatively narrate most of the story (a device that works brilliantly when Houston is knocked unconscious and suffers a concussion in the midst of the descent), and two other team-members contribute individual chapters as well – a reflection of the low-key, humble attitudes that made the expedition so successful. The story is a powerful reminder of how hard 8,000 meter climbing was in the age before SAT phones, gortex, or specialized forecasts, but the clear-eyed voices that speak from each page harken back to a more innocent time. K2: The Savage Mountain is a fitting testimate to a true high watermark of American Himalayan climbing.
Young Men and Fire
Norman Maclean, University of Chicago Press 1972, 1993
Clearly, novelist Norman Maclean knew a thing or two about how to tell a good story. In Young Men and Fire, he does not try to keep the reader in suspense. Rather, he begins his tale by taking the reader on a walk through the burned-out landscape of Mann Gulch, the day after a forest fire killed thirteen smoke jumpers in an unexpectedly violent blow-up. By acknowledging the “what” so early on, Maclean frees himself to concentrate on the “why”, and the following account of his thirty year obsession with the tragedy becomes as much a musing on his own mortality as it is a search to reconstruct the final moments of the young men’s lives (the meticulous research into the science and physiology of fires begs comparison to The Perfect Storm). But the reader should not be surprised if, by the end of the book, they are more concerned about the fate of their narrator than the “thirteen lonely crosses”: this is non-fiction of the highest order.
The Long Walk
Slavomir Rawicz, Lyons Press 1956, 1997
Epic is a word thrown around a lot in on the covers of adventure non-fiction these days. For a true definition of the word, I suggest reading Slavomir Rawicz’s The Long Walk. A Polish cavalry officer on the eve of World War II, Rawicz was captured by the Russians and sent to labor camp in Siberia. Before long, he and a small band of compatriots hatch a plan to escape… and walk to India. His journey across Asia, including the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert, and the Himalayas is nothing short of incredible. It would be tempting to revel in the undeniably grim circumstances of the venture, but with World War II raging beyond the horizon, Rawicz never forgets that it is a far better fate to be a man battling nature than a man battling men. The Long Walk is a refreshing triumph of simple human dignity and courage.
It’s all that, plus they kill a deer with an axe.
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The Essential Summer Adventure Reader
One of summer’s quiet pleasures is the chance to escape with a good book for some relaxed reading. Most book stores stock to the brim with paperback romance novels and fantasy fiction for the beach-going crowd – but what’s on the shelves for the would-be adventurer, facing the daunting challenge of a placid vacation with the family instead? There are plenty of new best-seller titles to choose from, but recently I’ve been getting the most pleasure by re-discovering old classics. Here are three of my all-time favorites:
Charles Houston/Robert Bates, McGraw-Hill 1954; Lyons Press 2009
Brevity is one quality frequently lacking in modern adventure stories – yet this book succeeds in recounting the epic American 1953 K2 expedition in a snappy 140 pages. In decided contrast to the big European siege assaults of the era, the trip was a lightweight venture undertaken by a tightly knit and well organized group of friends. K2 was unclimbed at the time, and they succeeded in establishing a high camp within spitting distance of the summit, only to be struck by a powerful storm. The ensuing descent quickly became an all out fight for survival. Houston and Bates alternatively narrate most of the story (a device that works brilliantly when Houston is knocked unconscious and suffers a concussion in the midst of the descent), and two other team-members contribute individual chapters as well – a reflection of the low-key, humble attitudes that made the expedition so successful. The story is a powerful reminder of how hard 8,000 meter climbing was in the age before SAT phones, gortex, or specialized forecasts, but the clear-eyed voices that speak from each page harken back to a more innocent time. K2: The Savage Mountain is a fitting testimate to a true high watermark of American Himalayan climbing.
Norman Maclean, University of Chicago Press 1972, 1993
Clearly, novelist Norman Maclean knew a thing or two about how to tell a good story. In Young Men and Fire, he does not try to keep the reader in suspense. Rather, he begins his tale by taking the reader on a walk through the burned-out landscape of Mann Gulch, the day after a forest fire killed thirteen smoke jumpers in an unexpectedly violent blow-up. By acknowledging the “what” so early on, Maclean frees himself to concentrate on the “why”, and the following account of his thirty year obsession with the tragedy becomes as much a musing on his own mortality as it is a search to reconstruct the final moments of the young men’s lives (the meticulous research into the science and physiology of fires begs comparison to The Perfect Storm). But the reader should not be surprised if, by the end of the book, they are more concerned about the fate of their narrator than the “thirteen lonely crosses”: this is non-fiction of the highest order.
Slavomir Rawicz, Lyons Press 1956, 1997
Epic is a word thrown around a lot in on the covers of adventure non-fiction these days. For a true definition of the word, I suggest reading Slavomir Rawicz’s The Long Walk. A Polish cavalry officer on the eve of World War II, Rawicz was captured by the Russians and sent to labor camp in Siberia. Before long, he and a small band of compatriots hatch a plan to escape… and walk to India. His journey across Asia, including the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert, and the Himalayas is nothing short of incredible. It would be tempting to revel in the undeniably grim circumstances of the venture, but with World War II raging beyond the horizon, Rawicz never forgets that it is a far better fate to be a man battling nature than a man battling men. The Long Walk is a refreshing triumph of simple human dignity and courage.
It’s all that, plus they kill a deer with an axe.