2006, 1st edition. 240 pp, b/w and color photos. Hardcover with dust jacket. Fine.
A cultural pilgrimage as well as an athletic one. The story blends personal adventure, middle-aged angst, the beauty of a landscape, history of exploration, and mysteries of the rise and fall of an ancient culture. By a critically acclaimed travel and adventure writer also famous for his exploits in Alaska's mountains. Includes photos by Greg Child of the landscape, Anasazi and Navajo ruins and rock art.
The friends were David Roberts, writer, adventurer, famed mountaineer of decades past, at age 61 the graybeard of the bunch; Greg Child, renowned mountaineer and rock climber, age 47; and Vaughn Hadenfeldt, a wilderness guide intimately acquainted with the canyonlands, age 53. They came to the Comb not only for the physical challenge, but to seek out seldom-visited ruins and rock art of the mysterious Anasazi culture. Each brought his own emotions on the journey; the Comb Ridge would test their friendship in ways they had never before experienced.
Searching for the stray arrowhead half-smothered in the sand or for the faint markings on a far sandstone boulder that betokened a little-known rock art panel, becomes a competitive sport for the three friends. Along the way, they ponder the mystery, bringing the accounts of early and modern explorers and archaeologists to bear: Who were the vanished Indians who built these inaccessible cliff dwellings and pueblos, often hidden from view? Of whom were they afraid and why? What caused them to suddenly abandon their settlements around 1300 AD? What meaning can be ascribed to their phantasmagoric rock art? What was their relationship to the Navajo, who were convinced the Anasazi had magical powers and could fly? Hardcover, DJ, New.
DAVID ROBERTS is the author of Mountain of My Fear, Deborah, Mount McKinley The Conquest of Denali, Moments of Doubt, On the Ridge Between Life & Death, Escape From Lucania, In Search of the Old Ones, and Escape Routes among other titles. His adventure and travel writing have appeared in Outside, National Geographic Adventure, The New York Times, and other publications.
David Roberts continues to write award-winning books and articles that are published worldwide. He made several pioneering, significent first ascents in Alaska including the Wickersham Wall on Mt McKinley, Kachatna Spire, East Face of Mt Dickey, etc. He co-authored with Bradford Washburn the magnificent book, Mount McKinley, The Conquest of Denali and ghost wrote Ed Viesturs' story of his 8000 meter climbs.
