Escape from Lucania

Description

Published by Little Brown, London, 2003, 1st UK Edition, D/w, Fine.   Mountaineer and prolific author David Roberts tells the incredible story of Bob Bates’ and Brad Washburn’s first ascent of Mount Lucania (17,150 feet) in 1937, at the time the highest unclimbed peak in North America.  The peak straddled the border of the Yukon and Alaska, all but inaccessible because of surrounding peaks and presenting a massive logistical challenge. Being flown in and climbing the mountain was, however, just the beginning of their epic which, when their pilot was unable to return to pick them up, involved a 150 mile hike out to civilisation, a real struggle for survival on low supplies through uncharted Yukon territory. Roberts interviewed the ninety-year olds, Bates and Washburn, who had first met at Harvard in 1929, and had access to their diaries to produce this account – both men died in 2007 at the grand old age of 96.