Review by ahawl008 -- The Altitude Journals

[ahawl008]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Altitude Journals" by David J Mauro.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The book I chose to read and review is The Altitude Journals: A Seven-Year Journey from the Lowest Point in My Life to the Highest Point on Earth, by David J. Mauro. I have watched the movie Everest three times and when I read the description of this book, I was excited to read it. I am a cold-natured person who hates cold weather and snow, but I like these kinds of mountain climbing adventure books. I covered myself up, turned on my little electric heater, and began to read.

This nonfiction book is told in first-person by the author. He has successfully climbed the seven mountains which are each the tallest point on their respective continents. These are known collectively as the Seven Summits. Only 65 Americans have successfully climbed to the top of all of these seven mountains. Mauro is the 65th American. The mountains he climbed, in the order he climbed them, are Denali, in Alaska; Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, Africa; Elbrus, in southern Russia; Aconcagua, in Argentina; Vinson Massif, in Antarctica; Carstensz Pyramid, in Papua, New Guinea; and Everest, in eastern Nepal.

Mauro describes his childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood, none of which seems to be successful at all. His father leaves the family for another woman when Mauro is a child, leaving the family almost destitute. It seems like nothing is going right in his life. His mother remarries, however, and his stepfather, Jack, makes the family happier.

Mauro and a lady he met in college got married and had two boys. They thought the marriage was happy, but problems arose. Divorce was mentioned. Mauro’s brother-in-law, Ty, invited him to go on a climb up Denali as an amateur mountain climber in a video he was making with professional climbers. Mauro felt now that he could go on the climb because he and his wife were separated.

I thought that Mauro wanted to do the difficult climb because he wished to prove that he could be a success at something—to make up for the failures in his early life. However, he continued to climb these Seven Summits, even though his life became very successful and he had nothing else to prove. Mauro describes the calling of these mountains this way: “Mountains don’t care that you have a young family counting on your return or that you are raising money for charity. They will tear you down to your most basic components, then invite you to go for broke.”

What I liked most about the book was Mauro’s description of the mechanics of climbing each mountain and how he felt health-wise. It is amazing to me that he was able to climb these mountains, especially the early ones, given his elementary level of experience, when other more professional climbers had to give up, or worse, were killed.

I can’t think of anything that I did not like about this book. That is why I rated it 4 out of 4 stars. Also, I noticed only 3 typos in the book, showing that it was very well edited.

The first instance of profanity in the book is on Location 92, in the Prologue: “f*ck you, I said to the dolls.” I noted 14 other instances of profanity in the book. I was not really offended by this, given the activities he was involved in.

I think that this book would appeal most to those readers who enjoy true adventure novels and stories of real people triumphing over challenges that they have taken on.

******
The Altitude Journals
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[kdstrack]

This is an inspiring story. I am looking forward to reading about the author's adventures - in spite of the cold! Thanks for the fascinating review.