Honorary Chair
Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008
President
Daniel A. Bennett
Honorary President
Don Walsh, Ph.D.
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Honorary Chair Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008 |
President Daniel A. Bennett |
Honorary President Don Walsh, Ph.D. |
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PUBLICATIONS
By Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Review by Club staff Jeff Stolzer In 2005, Ed Viesturs FN'95 reached the summit of Annapurna and became the first American (and only the sixth person) to successfully climb all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks in the world. The fact that he did so without using supplemental oxygen means that Viesturs is arguably the greatest American mountaineer in history. But if you expect his inspiring new book, No Shortcut to the Top, which chronicles his sixteen year quest, to be overflowing with testosterone and macho posturing, think again. The Viesturs who emerges in its pages is a man of immense modesty, humility, and shy charm. Viesturs grew up in Rockford, Illinois, "one of the flattest places in the Midwest", but from an early age developed a love for nature and animals. He was also a gifted athlete who became a champion swimmer in high school. As a teenager, Viesturs read Annapurna, Maurice Herzog's mountaineering classic, and he became obsessed with the idea of climbing in the Himalayas. For college, he chose the University of Washington so that he could learn to climb in the Cascades and majored in zoology, intent on becoming a veterinarian. After climbing Mt. Rainier, he was offered a summer job with Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., the legendary guiding concession. Viesturs went on to veterinary school and became a vet, but the call of climbing big mountains became too much for him and he gave up his career for a job as a carpenter. This gave him the flexibility to travel overseas for work as a guide in the Himalayas, but, as the book recounts with great poignancy, by the time Viesturs was 33, he was living in a windowless basement apartment and barely eking out a living building houses and occasionally guiding. He had sacrificed everything for his passion, mountain climbing. Fortunately for Viesturs, the story has a happy ending. He met a wonderful woman named Paula Barton who appreciated his sacrifices and determination (and his chiseled calves) and he married her. He found a sponsor in an upstart company named Mountain Hardware, which allowed him to climb full-time. And with great perseverance, patience, caution, determination and skill, he managed to climb the fourteen highest peaks in the world.
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