On the Ridge Between Life and Death - A Climbing Life Reexamined Description:

On the Ridge Between Life and Death : A Climbing Life Reexamined review:
4 stars (Inside a climbers head) - I was surprised by the openness of David Roberts book. The first that I've read of his works, it revealed what a climber thinks before, during, and after a climb, regardless of its technical difficulty. I found the feelings of climber's spouses, immediate family, and friends to be contradictory, yet aligned in an odd fashion. It thought that Roberts was brave, not only in his climbing, but in sharing his intimate feelings with the world.



Roberts' book also took me into the world of higher education, revealing the politics and how many administrators are stuck in stupid mode.



Despite the descriptive nature of the book, I still wish there were photographs in the book to help me visualize the books many characters. Roberts' vocabulary helped me to expand mine, as I frequently sought out the dictionary.
5 stars (Well Worth It!) - I eagerly awaited the arrival of this book as I have enjoyed reading David Roberts' other books on climbing and the Southwest. In this book Roberts' gives us an honest, revealing look at his early high school years through to the present day, concentrating on the various aspects of his life from climbing, teaching, and writing and what he gets out of each. He is directly involved in several climbing fatalities and yet continues climbing putting up many extremely difficult first ascents in Alaska. He examines his changing attitudes about the risks of climbing while reasessing the impacts the fatalities have had on his life and more importantly the families involved.

Here we have a 62 year old who is looking back over his life, feeling pride over his accomplishments (justly deserved), shame over past behavior, and struggling through career choices, which can help all of us with our own moments of self evaluation.



From reading Roberts' other books, I have wanted to know more about him. In this book, he shares his life with us, from the complexities of relationships with women to lifelong friendships he has made with the likes of Jon Krakauer, all interwoven with amazing climbing stories from Colorado to Alaska. Well written, and like usual, I kept a dictionary handy.