Postcards from the Ledge

August 31, 1998
Readers who can survive the funny but graphic first chapter on mountain climbers urinating, defecating, vomiting and coping with bugs, parasites and encrustations of frozen mucus will find the remainder of this book well worth pursuing. The 29 essays included are reworkings of pieces that Child (Thin Air) wrote for Climbing and Outside magazines. They range from accounts of the detritus left on the summits of the world's highest peaks to the furious controversies about two spectacular climbs that some skeptics doubt even took place, although, in one case, the skepticism about a woman's solo ascent of Mt. Everest seems to have resulted from blatant sexism. There are stories of heroism; a tale of tragedy on K2; a picture of the old Tibet, which is being rebuilt by its Chinese conquerors, who, Child reports, are replacing antique treasures with "tumble-down concrete schlock"; and, of course, the author's adventures as he climbed peaks from his native Australia to Europe, Asia and the Americas, the whole enlivened by his civilized wit. For those put off by the coarseness of some of the writing, Child warns us at the outset that language is the "first casualty in the slide toward savagery." 25 b&w photos not seen by PW.