Dougald MacDonald

I find my enthusiasm for mountain for mountain climbing has diminished with age. I did “climb” Mount Audubon when I first came to Colorado – “climb” is in quotes because there’s trail almost all the way to the top. I found the experience much like a comment I once heard about golf – “It was interesting enough, but I don’t see why anybody would want to do it twice”. I suppose I might struggle to the top of one if there was especially interesting geology, but I would bet it would be much easier to send Indian Boy.


So I only have Longs Peak because it was given away at a MENSA meeting. Interesting enough; it recounts a world that is as alien to me as North Korea, with various details about the history of climbing Longs Peak, routes up the mountain, accounts of local flowers and wildlife (although, surprisingly, next to nothing about geology), and a list of everybody who had died on the mountain as of the 2004 publication date. As a gateway to the hereafter, Longs Peak (no apostrophe in the official name) is only lightly used – 54 people have gone to meet their Maker in some way while going up or coming down Longs Peak; author Dougald MacDonald points out that because it’s so popular that’s about 1 for every 20000 summiteers, as opposed to 1 for every 9 who make it to the top of Mount Everest.


Since I don’t have any other mountaineering books I have no idea how this compares to others in the genre. The fact that the previous owner was giving it away in a book swap may be significant.… (mer)