Honorary Chair Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008	President Daniel A. Bennett	Honorary President Don Walsh, Ph.D.

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PUBLICATIONS Books on Explorers and Exploration From other Publishers   Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow: The Dark Side of Extreme Adventure By Club member Maria Coffey Foreword by Tom Hornbein ISBN 0312290659 Hardcover, 233pp October 2003 St. Martin's Press Review by Club member Milbry Polk Maria Coffey's latest mountaineering book is a sobering yet emotionally draining book on the terrible price paid not only by climbers but by their families when their passion exacts the ultimate price. Coffey began her foray into mountain literature in an attempt to come to grips with her grief after her boyfriend Joe Tasker perished on Everest. In this book, Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow, she interviews many wives, girlfriends, husbands, and families of fallen climbers. She tries to convey not only the sense of loss that death brings but the toll that the expeditions themselves exact. Not only the leave taking, the anxieties of the wait, but also the homecoming and the turmoil that often ensues. She talks of the passion, the love, the worry, the excitement, the anger, and the betrayal so universally felt by the families. Ultimelately she concludes that the climbers' legacy to those around them is a grand passion for life. And she applauds those few who have the vision to see beyond the immediate high the reach for the summit brings to other highs life has to offer. The lesson perhaps is that extreme sports bring you right to the knife edge of life and death, and beating death is the ultimate high. But every day can bring you knife edges; it is a matter of perspective, commitment, and personal passion—qualities we all have, however dormant they may be.

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