Reviews for Desire & Ice: A Search for Perspective Atop Denali

The average rating for Desire & Ice: A Search for Perspective Atop Denali based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-12-31 00:00:00 Estevan Perez Desire and Ice is the story of an ordinary man (as opposed to a professional mountaineer) who climbed Mount McKinley. Deciding in his forties that he would like the challenge, Brill signed up for a guided expedition to climb Mount McKinley. At 20,320 feet, McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America, and has some of the worst weather anywhere as well as a double digit death toll. While Desire and Ice isn't the greatest climbing book ever written, it is well written, fast paced, focussed and entertaining. One of the most memorable things about the book is that it tells the story of an expedition that worked. Not only did it reach the summit, but the nine members who did so bonded and became friends, which is something of a rarity in expeditions. As with many expeditions, this one was composed on a group of strangers. No doubt based on long experience, the pilot who flew them to base camp told them they were friends then, but would hate each other by the end. But against all odds, that didn't happen. Somehow, despite bad weather, personality quirks, boredom, physical ills, and lack of privacy, this group avoided conflict and controversy, and left with stronger bonds of friendship than when they arrived. Perhaps the fact that they were all amateurs accounts for this, for although everyone wanted to reach the summit, none were willing to step all over someone else to get there. Also interesting, although not entirely convincing, is Brill's explanation of why he went to McKinley and what the climb meant to him. He says that the mountain "exposed me to physical and emotional challenges more extreme thatn any I'd faced before. It forced me to tap reserves of strength and endurance I never realized I possessed. Compared with kicking steps to the top of Denali, even the most pitched battles at sea level seem remarkably uncomplicated....Denali was my Everest. It pushed me farther and led me higher than I ever imagined I could go.The expedition marked a departure from the 'quiet desperation' Thoreau wrote about." Somehow, I don't think scaling a tall mountain was what Thoreau had in mind as the remedy for the quiet desperation he wrote about. Thoreau sat still at pond's edge and though about life. For some people, and Brill may well be among them, it takes risking life and limb doing something that regularly gets people maimed and killed to get them to really think about their lives.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-10-23 00:00:00 Andrew Pulliam I read this book of one man's climb to the top of Mt. McKinley while on my own trip to Alaska. While he climbed the peak on his own power, I simply flew in a prop plane over and around that majestic mountain. After reading Brill's book, I decided that my method probably was the wiser of the two.