The Ledge

April 25, 2011
Davidson relates the story of the mountaineering accident that claimed his best friend, and his own 80-foot climb out of the crevasse into which the two had plunged after "summiting" Mt. Rainier. The suffering didn't stop after he was safe; "survivor's guilt" plagued him as he struggled to "survive the survival." He later found success as a motivational speaker that served as a form of catharsis; his speaking talents are evident in his emotional rendering of the fall and his excruciating, four-hour climb to safety. He traces the path that ended with the two on Mt. Rainier, quoting freely from his friend's journal and recalling his own journey to mountaineering, finding "something that nourished my soul" in the process. The buildup is sometimes tedious, but Davidson and journalist Vaughn (a reporter for the Denver Post) have crafted a modern Aristotelian tragedy.

May 15, 2011

The tragic saga of a mountain climb gone awry.

With the assistance of Denver Post reporter Vaughan, veteran mountain climber Davidson recounts how he and the late Mike Price attempted to summit Mount Rainier in the summer of 1992. As the pair of kindred spirits snapped a final photo from the peak, they took an 80-foot plunge into a crevasse. While Davidson managed to climb his way to safety, Price did not, forcing the survivor to return home and fulfill his burdensome responsibility of explaining the death to Price's family. Ostensibly, this is a survival story, but it's also a story of trust that explores a precarious situation in which men are literally bound to one another for survival. Though the narrative is highly personal, its implications reach much farther, offering a philosophical inquiry of how men react once the safety nets have been cut from beneath them. As the authors make clear, the life of a mountain climber depends on little more than footholds, carabineers and luck. As confirmed by Price's death, skill is of little use when luck doesn't fall one's way.

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March 1, 2011

As they descended Mount Rainier, Davidson and friend Mike Price fell 80 feet while tied together, a plunge that killed Price instantly and left an injured Davidson to climb a sheer ice wall to save himself. Here, Davidson retells the story while explaining how he has since moved forward; he's now an in-demand motivational speaker. Coauthor Vaughan won Best of Scripps and Associated Press Sports Editor awards for a five-part story he wrote about this incident, which appeared in the Rocky Mountain News. Pitched as both you-are-there adventure and inspirational reading.

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