Book Review: Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow: The Dark Side of Extrem Adventure
Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow: The Dark Side of Extreme Adventure by Maria Coffey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Without risk, say mountaineers, there would be none of the self-knowledge that comes from pushing life to its extremes. For them, perhaps, it is worth the cost. But when tragedy strikes, what happens to the people left behind? Why would anyone choose to invest in a future with a high-altitude risk-taker? What is life like in the shadow of the mountain? Such questions have long been taboo in the world of mountaineering. Now, the spouses, parents and children of internationally renowned climbers finally break their silence, speaking out about the dark side of adventure.
Maria Coffey confronted one of the harshest realities of mountaineering when her partner Joe Tasker disappeared on the Northeast Ridge of Everest in 1982. In Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow, Coffey offers an intimate portrait of adventure and the conflicting beauty, passion, and devastation of this alluring obsession. Through interviews with the world's top climbers, or their widows and families-Jim Wickwire, Conrad Anker, Lynn Hill, Joe Simpson, Chris Bonington, Ed Viesturs, Anatoli Boukreev, Alex Lowe, and many others-she explores what compels men and women to give their lives to the high mountains. She asks why, despite the countless tragedies, the world continues to laud their exploits. With an insider's understanding, Coffey reveals the consequences of loving people who pursue such risk-the exhilarating highs and inevitable lows, the stress of long separations, the constant threat of bereavement, and the lives shattered in the wake of climbing accidents.
Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow is a powerful, affecting and important book that exposes the far reaching personal costs of extreme adventure.
My Review: The book was very interesting. Sad. Many of the climbers seem selfish, addicts who choose risking their lives for notoriety over their families.
The bad thing about this book is that it is very, very redundant. The theme of the pursuit of climbing the highest peaks and the stress it puts on the families of the climbers is the book premise but at times I felt like Coffey just repeated herself over and over again. I skipped a chapter or two because I felt like I had just read that part in the previous chapter. How many times do we have to read about the same climber's death and the toll it took on his family?
If you're into adventure books or mountain climbing maybe this would be a good read, but I found it a bit boring at times, a lot sad, but interesting nonetheless.