Halfway to Heaven
| Page Type | Gear Review |
|---|---|
| Object Title | Halfway to Heaven |
| Manufacturer | Mark Obmascik |
| Page By | silversummit |
| Page Type | Aug 11, 2010 / Aug 14, 2010 |
| Object ID | 7272 |
| Hits | 2956 |
| Vote |
Book Summary
Halfway to HeavenMy White-knuckled-and Knuckleheaded-Quest for the Rocky Mountain High
From the dust-jacket:
"Fat, forty-four, father of three sons, and facing a vasectomy, Mark Obmascik would never have guessed that his next move would be up a 14,000-foot mountain. But when his twelve-year-old son gets bitten by the climbing bug at summer camp, Obmascik can't resist the opportunity for some high-altitude father-son bonding by hiking a peak together. After their first joint climb, addled by the thin air, Obmascik decides to keep his head in the clouds and try scaling all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains, known as the Fourteeners -- and to do them in less than one year."
Product Details
Price: $26.00Paperback: 273 pages
Author: Michael Obmascik
Publisher: Free Press
Year Published: 2009
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-4165-6699-1
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silversummit - Aug 11, 2010 10:37 pm - Voted 4/5
Need some light reading and comic relief?Yes, it is not your typical journey to attaining all the Colorado Fourteeners but it was funny and human. It seemed his major problem much of the time was simply finding hiking partners and he knew as well as being unsafe to hike alone, his wife would not allow him to leave without finding a hiking companion. Over and over he relates writing old friends, cold-calling, joining groups and so on. He relates his worries about huffing and puffing as younger and older hikers sail ahead of him up steep slopes. He talks about the 'eternal slog' and the hidden gems like the aquamarine of Mount Antero.
In addition, he describes how he felt as he succeeds on the tougher hikes and the guided climbs he made and running up against his self-imposed one-year deadline. Even though as an author he wrote from home, he still still had to climb when the kids were cared for but not constantly dump on his wife who worked outside the home - a precarious balance at best.
I'll probably never climb the Fourteeners but if I did I would definitely read the proper guidebooks and re-read Halfway to Heaven for its' down-to-earth experience.