No Picnic on Mount Kenya: Thoughts

“No Picnic on Mount Kenya” was an exciting and unique take on a mountain climbing adventure. With the ultimate goal of climbing the 17,000 ft Mount Kenya (the second tallest mountain in Africa), Benuzzi and his companions first had to escape from the POW camp where they were held captive. What makes this story even more unique is that these men planned from the very beginning to return to their prison camp after their attempt on the mountain. They had many reasons for this, and I won’t list them here, but their chief motivation was to escape the monotony of camp life. They had no hopes of escaping and making it away safely, but since they had to wait in prison they wanted something to help them pass the time.

So they began preparing a mountain climbing expedition in complete secret while in the confines of a POW camp. They had to collect everything they could save by way of food and supplies over a period of eight months, while at the same time using scrap metal to manufacture much of their gear, including ice axes and crampons. These men endeavored to climb a world class peak using ropes that were intended to secure their bed sheets to their bunks. Now that’s what I call chutzpah!

After a clever escape from camp and a treacherous crossing of occupied territory, the group of travelers found themselves in the heart of an African jungle. This was big game territory with wild rhinos, elephants, lions, leopards, etc. and all they had to defend themselves were two ice axes they had converted from hammers. After several close calls with a rhino, a leopard, and an elephant, they finally reached the base of the mountain and were able to begin their ascent.

I won’t recount the whole story here… I just hoped to illustrate how awesome this book really is. It’s a prison break, a jungle safari, and a mountain climb all rolled into one. It was a lot of fun to read. That being said, one of the things that made this book meaningful to me was the way it captures the indomitable nature of man. Benuzzi and his companions were prisoners of war, stuck in what is arguably one of the most demoralizing of all human experiences. And yet, when they looked out the door of their bunk house each morning, they could see the summit of Mount Kenya towering above them in the clouds, and their spirits were drawn to it.

Benuzzi put it like this, “standing in the ranks at morning roll-call and seeing Batian [the peak of Mount Kenya] beckoning me with its shimmering glaciers, I sometimes felt like running away on the spot, to seek and to meet adventure halfway.”

One of the things I found most humorous about this story was the note that Benuzzi and his companions left when they escaped. They sent a letter to their camp commander letting him know that they were escaping, but that they would be back in fourteen days. I wonder what must have been going through the commander’s head when he read that note! After their adventure, the men snuck back in to camp and took a day to read their mail and get some food in their systems before turning themselves in to the commander. They were sentenced to twenty eight days in solitary confinement as punishment, but only served seven days of their sentence because the commander “appreciated [their] sporting effort.” Sounds to me like a small price to pay for such a life changing adventure!

My rating: 7 out of 10

December's Book: No Picnic on Mount Kenya

In 1943, Felice Benuzzi and two Italian compatriots escaped from a British POW camp in equatorial East Africa with only one goal in mind--to climb the dangerous seventeen-thousand-foot Mount Kenya. No Picnic on Mount Kenya is the classic tale of this most bizarre and thrilling adventure, a story that has earned its place as a unique masterpiece of daring and suspense.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Adrift: Thoughts

Steven Callahan’s survival story Adrift had me fully engrossed within the first ten minutes. I finished the entire book in two days because I could not put it down.

Callahan shares the story of his disastrous attempt at a solo crossing of the Atlantic. He sailed from the Canaries in January, 1982 on his ship Napoleon Solo. Seven days out, he was asleep in his cabin when the side of his ship suddenly burst open, spilling the sea into his little world. In a few desperate moments, he grabbed what he could and jumped into the life raft that would be his home for the next 76 days. Unable to move his small vessel against the current, Callahan drifted over 1,800 miles across the ocean. Battling storms, sharks, blistering thirst, debilitating hunger, and the constant strain of never being able to rest for more than a few hours at a time, it is miraculous that he was able to pull through.

One of the most captivating elements of Callahan’s narrative is his relationship with the school of fish that accompanied him on his journey. They arrived almost the very first day and nudged him through the floor of his raft nearly every hour of his crossing.  They provided him with life sustaining food, and more importantly, with companionship. They even left the sea on the same day as him, being captured by the very fishermen who rescued Callahan from his raft. He marveled frequently at how accommodating the fish were. As he grew weaker, they seemed to do their best to help him.

“Why, when I had trouble hunting, did the dorado come closer? Why did they make it increasingly easier for me as I and my weapon became more broken and weak, until in the end they lay on their sides right under my point? Why have they provided me just enough food to hang on for eighteen hundred nautical miles? I know that they are only fish, and I am only a man. We do what we must and only what Nature allows us to do in this life. Yet sometimes the fabric of life is woven into such a fantastic pattern. I needed a miracle and my fish gave it to me. That and more.”

There is no doubt that miraculous circumstances combined to bring Callahan home. He spent over two months literally straddling the line between life and death. Just when he seemed to have enough water, his spear would break and he would have no way of catching fish. Once his spear was repaired and he had food, his still would break and he would not be able to get water. Just after a rainstorm allowed him to collected 6 ounces of drinking water, his raft would blow a hole. After patching the hole, he would lie down and try to rest, only to be awoken by a shark pounding his body through the bottom of the raft and he would have to get up and defend himself. He seemed to have the entire ocean against him, yet through perseverance and ingenuity, he always managed to keep his head above water.

“For now, I can say that I am grateful for this experience and for the stream down which it continues to float me. I would not volunteer to go through it again, but the sea that tested me also proved forgiving enough to let me live, to show me how to live. For the first time in my life I felt truly humbled. It is just another irony with which my tale is filled—the heartfelt realization of one’s insignificance yields a calming sense of being completely connected to the greater whole. As a tiny part of the world and humanity, I now feel more at peace and much larger than I ever felt as a man alone.”

My rating: 9 out of 10

November's Book: Adrift

Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's Adrift chronicled one of the most astounding voyages of the century and one of the great sea adventures of all time. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is now an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived for more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days from port. Racked by hunger, buffeted by storms, scorched by the tropical sun, Callahan drifted for 1,800 miles, fighting off sharks with a makeshift spear and watching as nine ships passed him by. "A real human drama that delves deeply into man's survival instincts" (Library Journal), Adrift is a story of anguish and horror, of undying heroism, hope, and survival, and a must-read for any adventure lover.

(Summary from the back of the book)

Wind, Sand and Stars: Thoughts

In Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine De Saint-Exupery takes readers back to the days when pilots were still venturing into the unknown world between the earth and sky.

“A pilot’s business is with the wind, with the stars, with night, with sand, with sea. He strives to outwit the forces of nature. He stares in expectancy for the coming dawn the way a gardener awaits the coming of spring. He looks forward to port as to a promised land, and truth for him is what lives in the stars.”

One thing I enjoyed about this book was that the pilots and their planes were still very much at the mercy of nature. Their planes were small and not very powerful, unlike planes today. They could not just shoot through the sky, guided by computers and powered by twin jet engines. When there was a storm they had to fly through it, not over it. At one point the author describes an amazing storm that one of his friends had to fly through of the coast of South Africa, a storm where water tornadoes were shooting up out of the sea all around him.

“Great black waterspouts had reared themselves seemingly in the immobility of temple pillars. Swollen at their tops, they were supporting the squat and lowering each arch of the tempest, but through the rifts in the arch there fell slabs of light and the full moon sent her radiant beams between the pillars down upon the frozen tiles of the sea. Through these uninhabited ruins Mermoz made his way, gliding slantwise from one channel of light to the next, circling round those giant pillars in which there must have rumbled the upsurge of the sea, flying for four hours through these corridors of moonlight toward the exit from the temple.”

For me, the best part of this book is the chapter in which the author describes his survival experience in the Sahara desert. He and his copilot were stranded for over 3 days with less than a pint of water. After walking in the desert for 100 miles with nothing to drink, Antoine lays down in the sand and buries himself, expecting to die by morning. Throughout this experience he had seen numerous mirages and hallucinations and it tore at my heart every time he was filled with elation that he had been saved, only to realize that the images before him were only in his mind. Through amazing endurance and sheer luck the two men were saved, after coming within hours of literally shriveling up like raisins. The story is too good for me to summarize here. It’s chapter 8… you should read it.

Lastly, I enjoyed the author’s poetic view on life. He was very philosophical and often paused to reflect on the world around him. I loved the following passage, though it left me with a sense of sadness:

“Gazing at this transfigured desert I remember the games of my childhood—the dark and golden park we peopled with gods; the limitless kingdom we made of this square mile never thoroughly explored, never thoroughly charted. We created a secret civilization where footfalls had a meaning and things a savor known in no other world.”

            “And when we grow to be men and live under other laws, what remains of that park filled with the shadows of childhood, magical, freezing, burning? What do we learn when we return to it and stroll with a sort of despair along the outside of its little wall of gray stone, marveling that within a space so small we should have founded a kingdom that seemed to us infinite—what do we learn except that in this infinity we shall never again set foot, and that it is into the game and not the park that we have lost the power to enter?”

My rating: 6 out of 10

October's Book: Wind, Sand and Stars

Wind, Sand and Stars is unsurpassed in capturing the grandeur, danger, and isolation of flight. Its exciting account of air adventure - through the treacherous passes of the Pyrenees, above the Sahara, along the snowy ramparts of the Andes - combined with lyrical prose and the soaring spirit of a philosopher, make this  book one of the most popular works ever written about flying. 

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

K2, The Savage Mountain: Thoughts

K2, The Savage Mountain is a thrilling tale of the 1953 attempt by a team of Americans to be the first to reach the summit of the second highest mountain in the world. Along the way they endured terrible struggles, sickness, frostbite, starvation, storms, avalanches, and mental anxiety that would stretch any man to his limit. In fact, these challenges very nearly cost them their lives. Though they were not successful in their summit attempt, what they achieved under the most trying of circumstances is worthy of recognition. Upon returning to base camp, I don’t believe any of them felt that they had failed.

One thing this book taught me was the importance of establishing camps during a summit attempt. In the past I have often wondered, why place 7 or 8 camps all up the side of a mountain, making innumerable relay climbs and turning a summit attempt into a three week ordeal under the best of circumstances? Why not just take two guys, three days worth of food, and make a blitz for the top? The explanation given in this book is that the weather is so unpredictable when you reach such high altitudes that you may be stranded at one of your camps for two weeks before you have an opening of two days to reach the next camp, or the summit. These men were certainly lucky they had properly established their camps. They ended up being stranded in a storm for ten days at an altitude of 25,500 feet before they were forced to turn back, making a daring escape attempt while the storm still raged.

They were forced to abandon their attempt at the summit because one of their team, Art Gilkey, became incredibly sick, with blood clots in both lungs. Unable to walk, they were forced to carry him down the mountain wrapped up in a sleeping bag. At one point during the descent an avalanche fell down over the top of Gilkey and his climbing partner, who were held to the mountain by their ropes as the snow pounded over and around them. Not long after this event, the team suffered an accident that nearly killed them all. The men were tackling a particularly difficult section of the climb when one of them slipped and started falling, pulling his partner off of his feet. This pair was independently roped and would have fallen together off of the side of the mountain, but somehow they became tangled with another pair of climbers, pulling both of them off of their feet as well. These four men fell into a fifth climber, tangling him in their ropes and pulling him down the slope. Amazingly, this fifth climber was tied in to Gilkey, who, resting in his sleeping bag was being belayed by the seventh member of the climbing team from 60 feet up the mountain. This one man, Peter Schoening, held all six of his companions on the end of a single rope and stopped all of them from falling off  of “a slanting Empire State Building six times as high as the real one.” In the end the team made it safely down the mountain, with the exception of Art Gilkey, whose inexplicable disappearance undoubtedly saved all of their lives.

At many points during this book I had to stop and admire the strength and bravery of these men. They were attempting something that had never been done before, and they seemed to have all the cards stacked against them. Time after time they faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and they pulled together and made it through. That being said, at other times while reading this book I had to stop and ask myself the question, are these men crazy? This is absolutely insane what they are doing. Why would anyone leave the safety of their home and travel halfway around the world to climb a mountain that kills one man for every four who reach the summit? Why even try to climb these mountains at all? I love the answer that Houston and Bates give at the beginning of the book.

“In the year that has passed since our ordeal we have been asked that question many times and have answered it in many ways. No answer is complete or satisfactory. Perhaps there is no single answer; perhaps each climber must have his own reasons for such an effort. The answer cannot be simple; it is compounded of such elements as the great beauty of clear cold air, of colors beyond the ordinary, of the lure of unknown regions beyond the rim of experience. The pleasure of physical fitness, the pride of conquering a steep and difficult rock pitch, the thrill of danger—but danger controlled by skill—are also there. How can I phrase what seems to me the most important reason of all? It is the chance to be briefly free of the small concerns of our common lives, to strip off nonessentials, to come down to the core of life itself. Food, shelter, friends—these are the essentials, these plus faith and purpose and a deep and unrelenting determination. On great mountains all purpose is concentrated on the single job at hand, yet the summit is but a token of success, and the attempt is worthy in itself. It is for these reasons that we climb, and in climbing find something greater than accomplishment.”

My rating: 7 out of 10

September's Book: K2, The Savage Mountain

K2, the second highest peak in the world, is generally regarded as the most difficult and dangerous of all mountains. This is the dramatic story of the 1953 American expedition when a combination of terrible storms and illness stopped them short of the summit. Then on the descent, tragedy struck, and how they made it back to safety is renowned in the annals of climbing. K2, The Savage Mountain captures this sensational tale with an unmatched power that has earned this book its place as one of the classics of mountaineering literature. 

(Summary from the back of the book)

My First Summer in the Sierra: Thoughts

John Muir’s “My First Summer in the Sierra” was less an adventure book, and more a passionate stroll through the wild mountains of California. I have never known anyone to find greater pleasure in nature than John Muir. Though the reading was wearisome at times, with endless descriptions of trees, rocks, and clouds, I found it difficult to put the book down. His seemingly boundless ecstasy from being surrounded by wilderness was extremely contagious, even after 100 years. I have never spent more than an hour in the Yosemite Valley, but after experiencing it through the eyes of John Muir, I am sure it is one of the most marvelous places on earth.

 Muir was hired to spend the summer as a shepherd, taking the flock of a Mr. Delaney into the mountains for grazing. Though he despised the sheep and often faulted them for marring his otherwise untouched wilderness, he agreed to the work because it was the only way he could afford to spend so much time in the wild.

Here is one of my favorite passages which illustrates the depth of Muir’s passion for the untouched wilderness.

On the way back to our Tuolumne camp, I enjoyed the scenery if possible more than when it first came into view. Every feature already seems familiar as if I had lived here always. I never weary gazing at the wonderful Cathedral. It has more individual character than any other rock or mountain I ever saw, excepting perhaps the Yosemite South Dome. The forests, too, seem kindly familiar, and the lakes and meadows and glad singing streams. I should like to dwell with them forever. Here with bread and water I should be content. Even if not allowed to roam and climb, tethered to a stake or tree in some meadow or grove, even then I should be content forever. Bathed in such beauty, watching the expressions ever varying on the faces of the mountains, watching the stars, which here have a glory that the lowlander never dreams of, watching the circling seasons, listening to the songs of waters and winds and birds, would be endless pleasure. And what glorious cloudlands I should see, storms and calms, -- a new heaven and a new earth every day, aye and new inhabitants. And how many visitors I should have. I feel sure I should not have one dull moment. And why should this appear extravagant? It is only common sense, a sign of health, genuine, natural, all-awake health. One would be at an endless Godful play, and what speeches and music and acting and scenery and lights! – sun, moon, stars, auroras. Creation just beginning, the morning stars “still singing together and all the sons of God shouting for joy.”

If only mankind could learn a lesson from John Muir. If only we could see what he sees in the natural world, I am certain that we would seldom have reason to be unhappy. If only we could take the time to discover what a marvelous world our God has created for us, I am certain that no one ever become an atheist.

Mr. Delaney arrived this morning. Felt not a trace of loneliness while he was gone. On the contrary, I never enjoyed grander company. The whole wilderness seems to be alive and familiar, full of humanity. The very stones seem talkative, sympathetic, brotherly. No wonder when we consider that we all have the same Father and Mother.

My rating: 7 out of 10
 

August's Book: My First Summer in the Sierra

This volume in the John Muir Library Series is the most popular of Muir's works: the naturalist's account of his first visit to the High Sierra and the Yosemite. There he recognized his life's calling: to preserve wilderness areas. Muir's extraordinary memoir vividly communicates the excitement and reverence he felt at discovering the spectacular natural world of the Sierra.

Based on his journal entries for 1869, the text has an immediacy and spontaneity that bring alive the voice and emotions of the young Muir and the humor of his rough-and-tumble adventures as a California shepherd. The book brims with the budding naturalist's detailed observations of the region's flora and fauna as well as his memorable encounters with local characters and the region's Indians.

This joyous book is Muir's celebration of the landscape that he came to love passionately--"my forever memorable first High Sierra excursion, when I crossed the Range of Light, surely the brightest and best of all the Lord has built." My First Summer in the Sierra traces the emergence of his conservationist urge as he contrasts the Indians, "who walk softly and hurt the landscape hardly more than the birds or the squirrels," with the white settlers--blasting roads, building intrusive structures, and altering the landscape. Muir shares his growing determination to preserve this "divine, enduring, unwastable wealth" for future generations.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Endurance: Thoughts

I was thrilled to return to the Antarctic in F. A. Worsley’s Endurance. I had heard a great deal about this fateful voyage lead by Sir Ernest Shackleton, and I was not disappointed. By now I am thoroughly convinced that Antarctic expeditions are the most daring and adventurous of them all. In this forgotten corner of the world you never know what is going to happen. Worsley described it perfectly when he said,

“…You felt as though you had stepped into a world where the laws of Nature, as you had known them, were suspended and overruled by some vaster Power, which was making itself known to you.”

These men got stuck in the pack ice before ever reaching the continent. Their ship sank and they were forced to live for months on top of the frozen ocean surface. Here they encountered all sorts of dangers, from being chased by ravenous sea-leopards (almost 15 feet long), to having massive ice bergs charge their camp with the power of 40 battleships, to having the very ice beneath them split open while they were sleeping. Through incredible hardships, and against incredible odds, they were able to make it to land and then eventually to safety. In the process however, they suffered hunger, thirst, fatigue, and most especially, bitter, relentless cold. Shackleton led a rescue party by boat across 800 nautical miles of Antarctic Ocean, during which time they were never able to get dry for even a moment. After landing on South Georgia they were forced to cross the frozen, mountainous landscape on foot to reach the safety of the whaling port. Their success was nothing short of miraculous. In fact, Worsley often commented that he believed they were being helped by a greater power.

For example, there was the time they lost their rudder, and after six days it inexplicably returned to them.

“After six days’ wandering, with the vast Southern Ocean and all the shores of South Georgia to choose from, that rudder, as though it were faithfully performing what it knew to be its duty, had returned to our very feet. This incident strengthened in us the feeling that we were being protected in some inexplicable way by a Power of which we were aware but could not aspire to understand.”

Worsley also mentioned that during the trio’s crossing of South Georgia he had felt that a greater power had been with them all the way.

“There was no doubt that Providence had been with us. There was indeed one curious thing about our crossing of South Georgia, a thing that has given me much food for thought, and which I have never been able to explain. Whenever I reviewed the incidents of that march I had the sub-conscious feeling that there were four of us, instead of three. Moreover, this impression was shared by both Shackleton and Crean.”

The thing I loved most about this book, however, was the sense of honor and dignity showed by these men, and most especially by Shackleton himself. He felt a profound sense of duty to his crew and as a result, he was loved and revered by them.

“Shackleton had always insisted that the ultimate responsibility for anything that befell us was his and his only... My view was that we were all grown men, going off of our own free wills on this expedition, and that it was up to us to bear whatever was coming to us. Not so Shackleton. His idea was that we had trusted him, that we had placed ourselves in his hands, and that should anything happen to any one of us, he was morally responsible. His attitude was almost patriarchal.”

I really appreciated reading about the dignity and honor of this incredible man. There aren’t many men like that these days--men who look to the well being of their fellows above their own. There are many important lessons that can be learned from his example of self sacrifice. I am looking forward to reading about his South Pole attempt in the coming months.

My rating: 9 out of 10

July's Book: Endurance

First published in 1931, Endurance relates the riveting account of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s doomed 1914-16 expedition to the Antarctic and its incredible rescue: After HMS Endurance became stuck in Antarctic ice packs and then sank into the Weddell Sea, its twenty-five crew members were forced to launch three lifeboats and sail, in miserable conditions, for barren Elephant Island. From there, Shackleton, Frank Worsley (captain of the Endurance), and four others set off in the largest of the lifeboats, the James Caird, to seek help eight hundred miles away at the whaling stations on the island of South Georgia. Endurance is not only a tale of courage and unrelenting high adventure but also a tribute to one of the most courageous leaders in the history of exploration.

(Summary from back cover)

Stranger in the Forest: Thoughts

The story of Eric Hansen's journey through the jungles of Borneo initially sounded a lot more incredible than it actually turned out to be. In my opinion, Hansen was not an explorer or an adventurer. He was not an anthropologist or a naturalist. He was just some guy who thought he would make a name for himself by going on a difficult journey, and get famous writing a book about it.

That being said, there were some redeeming elements to his story. The people of Borneo, especially the Penan people that he traveled with, were amazing in their physical capabilities and in their sense of community and sharing. I was very impressed with Hansen's descriptions of the peselai (the long journey) that the jungle men, and sometimes women, would undertake. They would leave their homes, often for months or years at a time, and would travel through the jungle on foot. Often they went seeking work on the other side of the island and would sacrifice years of their lives to bring back wealth and honor for their families. Hansen met one group of travelers just as they were returning from their peselai, when they were 4 days away from home after being away for over two years. One man, Pa Lampung, was carrying an old-fashioned Singer sewing machine, mounted on a cast-iron base inside a hardwood cabinet. He had hiked over 80 miles through the jungle with that heavy contraption on his back... a gift for his wife as he returned home from his long journey.

I was disappointed that Hansen seemed so underwhelmed with all of the natural wonders around him. The back cover of the book described the amazing life found in the jungle such as jumping snakes, pigs that climb trees, and mushrooms that glow in the dark at night. Sadly, the back cover of the book said just as much about these amazing things as the actual text. Hansen seemed much less interested in the wonders of the jungle than he was in all things relating to sexual pleasure, such as jungle people's methods of contraception. It was actually kind of pathetic.

The one part of the book that kept my attention was the episode when Hansen was traveling alone through the jungle and the people mistook him for bali saleng, the evil spirit that traveled alone through the jungle collecting people's blood for offerings. Several times he was surrounded by groups of men that threatened his life because they thought he was this evil spirit. The thing that blew my mind was the arrogance and stupidity of Hansen. He was repeatedly warned by the people not to travel by himself through the jungle and he never listened to them. Even wise elders from the villages he visited, men that he greatly respected, told him not to travel alone, and he thought their fears were just ridiculous superstition. These chapters just served to illustrate even more that Hansen was just out there trying to prove something.

What could have been an amazing adventure story turned out to be just one disappointment after another. I think it's time for National Geographic to find replacement on their list for this one.

My rating: 4 out of 10

June's Book: Stranger in the Forest

Eric Hansen was the first westerner ever to walk across the island of Borneo. Completely cut off from the outside world for seven months, he traveled nearly 1,500 miles with the small bands of nomadic hunters known as Penan. Beneath the rain forest canopy, they trekked through a hauntingly beautiful jungle where snakes and frogs fly, pigs climb trees, giant carnivorous plants eat mice, and mushrooms glow at night.

At once a modern classic of travel literature and a gripping adventure story, Stranger in the Forest provides a rare and intimate look at the vanishing way of life of one of the last surviving groups of rain forest dwellers. Hansen's absorbing, and often chilling, account of his exploits is tempered with the humor and humanity that prompted the Penan to take him in to their world and to share their secrets.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

The Silent World: Thoughts

It is a pity I could not have read this book when it was first published in 1953. Back when it came out, Cousteau and his mates were practically the equivalent of modern day astronauts, venturing into a world mankind had only been able to admire from a distance. You get a sense of this by reading the types of things they would talk about after their first few dives.

“We reveled in plans for the aqualung. Tailliez penciled the tablecloth and announced that each yard of depth we claimed in the sea would open to mankind three hundred thousand cubic kilometers of living space.”

They honestly believed at first that they were opening up a new age of mankind. They looked forward to the day when growing populations would move to the sea as their home, forsaking the land entirely. They even speculated on future man developing into a new hybrid species, half man, half fish. This seems a bit humorous to us over half a century later, but to these men, the future held as many possibilities as fish in the sea. And they were all waiting to be discovered.

 They took to the water with the wonder of little children. Every dive was an adventure. They examined sunken ships, searching for lost treasures. They explored underwater caves and once found an underwater tunnel going through the heart of an island and coming out on the other side. They also “discovered” a species of seal that had been thought extinct for at least sixty years. Rather than relating one adventure or a series of adventures in his book, Cousteau took on the monumental task of writing about a lifetime’s worth of adventures.

But it wasn’t all fun and games. Cousteau and his mates had to make a living as well. Fortunately for them, the Navy was eager to make use of their newfound underwater abilities. Unfortunately for them, this often put them in the way of danger, not unlike swimming guinea pigs. Consider for example, when the Navy had them test the ability of a human to endure underwater explosions.

“We went underwater in pairs while one-pound TNT charges were exploded at progressively nearer distances. When a burst caused too much discomfort, we stopped… The astonishing thing was how close we could get and bear it. Sometimes, when two of us were hanging in our stations waiting for the explosion, we would look at each other and wince at the lunatic idea.”

Perhaps my favorite experience described in Cousteau’s book was the time they were attempting to film a submarine laying mines underwater. They were having difficulty coordinating the location of the drop with the sub (they had no underwater radios at the time). Then Dumas had a wild idea, “I’ll ride the sub down and give the order to drop them at the right place." He wanted to ride down on the outside of the submarine. They decided to let him try and the submarine captain watched through the periscope as this crazy diver held on to the rail as he was pummeled with an avalanche of water. Dumas rode the sub down through the waves until he was fully submerged and then at the moment he passed his friends with the camera, he pounded on the sub with a hammer and they dropped the mine. How incredible is that? And this was their job!

It is important to remember while reading this book that no one had ever done these things before. For example, Cousteau invented the shark cage. Before his time no one had ever needed one! The sea was a world unknown before they ventured into it. Mankind’s concept of the ocean had up to this time been formed by the world of science fiction. It is because of these preconceived notions from literature that these men built a poisonous harpoon gun to take down with them, just in case they came across a giant squid or other sea monster. Thanks to them, we have come to truly know the sea, and millions of people have been able to follow their bubbles down into the deep. They were truly explorers and mankind owes them a debt of gratitude for the marvels they uncovered and for the silent world they brought to the surface.

My rating: 7 out of 10

May's Book: The Silent World

A new era of undersea exploration began in 1943 when the young French naval officers J.Y. Cousteau and Philippe Tailliez, and the great civilian diver Frédéric Dumas, plunged into the Mediterranean with the first aqualung, co-invented by Cousteau.

In this fascinating report, Cousteau and Dumas tell what it is like to be 'menfish' swimming in the deep twilight zone with sharks, mantas, morays, whales, and octopi. They tell of exploring sunken ships and of the treasures they brought up. They describe ventures into an inland water cave that all but claimed their lives, and their crazy human-guinea-pig experiment with underwater explosions. Cousteau writes brilliantly of his audacious 50-fathom dive into the zone of rapture, where divers become like drunken gods; and of the 396-foot dive that took a brave companion's life.

Cousteau, Dumas, and their courageous teams of divers have used their new techniques of exploration to make important discoveries in almost every branch of science. In The Silent World they share with us the greatest undersea experience men have ever had.

Description on the back of the book

Alone: Thoughts

“This much should be understood from the beginning: that above everything else… I really wanted to go for the experience’s sake… to be by [myself] for a while and to taste peace and quiet and solitude long enough to find out how good they really are.”

I had no difficulty at all relating to Richard Byrd’s desires for solitude, being somewhat of a solitary man myself. What intrigued me, however, was his desire to seek his solitude in one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. I came to know this incredible corner of the world while reading “The Worst Journey in the World” which we will get to later in the Man’s Book Club (seriously one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read). I was eager to go back with Admiral Byrd. It was fascinating to read about his little hut that they buried in the snow, how they filled his supply tunnels with food and fuel, and then how they turned around and drove away, leaving him to face the arctic winter alone. He shares his thoughts from his first night:

“About 1 o’clock in the morning, just before turning in, I went topside for a look around. The night was spacious and fine. Numberless stars crowded the sky. I had never seen so many. You had only to reach up and fill your hands with the bright pebbles… And all this was mine: the stars, the constellations, even the earth as it turned on its axis. If great inward peace and exhilaration can exist together, then this, I decided my first night alone, was what should possess the senses.”

Little did he know the trials that awaited him.

For me, the most intense part of the story was when Byrd accidentally locked himself outside at night during a blizzard. Actually, more than just being locked out, his door was frozen shut and nothing he could do would open it. 

“Panic took me then, I must confess. Reason fled. I clawed at the three-foot square of timber like a madman. I beat on it with my fists, trying to shake the snow loose; and, when that did no good, I lay flat on my belly and pulled until my hands went weak from cold and weariness. Then I crooked my elbow, put my face down, and said over and over again, You damn fool, you damn fool. Here for weeks I had been defending myself against the danger of being penned inside the shack; instead, I was now locked out; and nothing could be worse, especially since I had only a wool parka and pants under my windproofs. Just two feet below was sanctuary—warmth, food, tools, all the means of survival. All these things were an arm’s length away, but I was powerless to reach them.”

Byrd would surely have died within 30 minutes, with temperatures at 65 degrees below zero and the storm pounding down on him. He only managed to survive by stumbling onto a shovel that had been left outside earlier that day. With this he was able to pry open his door and escape to the protection of his hut (where it was a much balmier negative 20 degrees).

A month or so after this incident Byrd would come even closer to losing his life. The accident that crippled him, and which brought him within an inch of death, occurred during a routine radio contact with his companions at Little America. He had failed to clear the exhaust pipes for his generator and was knocked out by carbon monoxide poisoning. For the next two months he hovered between this life and the next, unable to help himself and unwilling to ask his team for help, lest they risk a rescue attempt in the black of winter. In the end, Byrd was able to pull through, though it would be two more months after his friends came to his aide before he would be able to make the journey back himself.

From this period of utter isolation Byrd shares several gems of wisdom that he was able to work out while facing his own mortality.

“If I had never seen a watch and should see one for the first time, I should be sure its hands were moving according to some plan and not at random. Nor does it seem any more reasonable for me to conceive that the precision and order of the universe is the product of blind chance. This whole concept is summed up in the word harmony. For those who seek it, there is inexhaustible evidence of an all-pervading intelligence.”

“The universe was a cosmos, not a chaos; man was as rightfully a part of that cosmos as were the day and night.”

“A man’s moments of serenity are few, but a few will sustain him a lifetime. I found my measure of inward peace then; the stately echoes lasted a long time.”

And this last one that I love.

“Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used.”

Though Byrd’s adventure turned out far different than he had originally planned, he certainly found the solitude that he went searching for. Though for him it turned out to be more like solitary confinement. He was lucky to escape with his life. I know that if I ever plan to spend a winter at the bottom of the world, I’m taking someone with me!

My rating: 7 out of 10

April's Book: Alone

When Admiral Richard E. Byrd set out on his second Antarctic expedition in 1933, he was already an international hero for having made the first flights over the North and South poles. But this undertaking was to be different: six months alone near the bottom of the world, gathering weather data and indulging his desire "to taste peace and quiet long enough to know how good they really are." Little did he know that he would experience less tranquility than he had anticipated. Isolated in the pervasive polar night with no hope of release until spring, Byrd began suffering inexplicable symptoms of mental and physical illness. By the time he discovered that carbon monoxide from a defective stove pipe was poisoning him, Byrd was already engaged in a monumental struggle to save his life and preserve his sanity.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Arabian Sands: Thoughts

“Only in the desert…could a man find freedom.”

This feeling of freedom is what drove Wilfred Thesiger again and again to one of the most inhospitable places on earth. In "Arabian Sands", Thesiger describes his love affair with the desert, developed through years of wandering through the Empty Quarter of Arabia. He traveled by camel and by foot, with a handful of loyal Bedu for his companions. He suffered starvation, exhaustion, and bitter resentment on account of his Christian faith. Yet he could never get enough of it. 

“In the desert I had found a freedom unattainable in civilization; a life unhampered by possessions, since everything that was not a necessity was an encumbrance. I had found, too, a comradeship inherent in the circumstances, and the belief that tranquility was to be found there. I had learnt the satisfaction which comes from hardship and the pleasure which springs from abstinence: the contentment of a fully belly; the richness of meat; the taste of clean water; the ecstasy of surrender when the craving for sleep becomes a torment; the warmth of a fire in the chill of dawn.”

The most incredible part of this book for me was the Bedu themselves; men like Thesiger's companions Bin Kabina and Bin Ghabaisha. These men had spent their entire lives living in the desert, never owning more than a camel and what they could carry on their backs. With a rifle and a dagger, these men were prepared to roam for months at a time, traveling until exhausted and then stretching out on the sand to sleep, often without even a blanket to cover them. The desert was their home and they lived in it by choice. 

Their lives in the desert had taught them many skills that are so foreign to me, they seem almost supernatural. One of the most remarkable of these was their ability to track. Thesiger describes several instances when one of his companions could read tracks in the sand and discern intimate details from them. On one occasion a man read some camel tracks they had come across and told the party, "They were Awamir. There are six of them. They have raided the Junuba on the southern coast and taken three of their camels. They have come here from Sahma and watered at Mughshin. They passed here ten days ago." They had not seen anyone for seventeen days, and did not see anyone for another twenty-seven days. After their journey, they exchanged news in the village and found that everything the man had read in those tracks had occurred exactly as he had described it. 

With companions such as these, is it any wonder that Thesiger felt drawn to the desert? He longed for the dunes of Arabia with such a passion that when he left the peninsula for the last time to return to England he said, "I knew what it felt like to go into exile."

“To others my journey would have little importance. It would produce nothing except a rather inaccurate map which no one was ever likely to use. It was a personal experience, and the reward had been a drink of clean, nearly tasteless water. I was content with that.”

My rating: 7 out of 10

March's Book: Arabian Sands

"Arabian Sands" is Wilfred Thesiger's record of his extraordinary journey through the parched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life-"the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets." In the spirit of T.E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East. 

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Carrying the Fire: Thoughts

Having grown up in a world where man-on-the-moon has always been a fact, this book literally blew me away! I had no idea how much work went into getting us to the moon and just how awesome of an adventure it was!


"Carrying the Fire" follows the journey of Michael Collins from his early days as an Air Force test pilot all the way through his world-changing voyage to the moon. It highlights his struggle to get into the space program, his training, the incredible Gemini 10 mission, and takes you minute by minute to the moon and back. Collins brings the technical aspects of NASA down to a level that everyone can understand and he is personal enough to let you into his thoughts as he orbits alone around the dark side of the moon. 


I was amazed at just how experimental everything was! Many of the things they did were just shooting from the hip. After all, how do you practice landing a spaceship on the moon? They built a replica of the moon's surface out of gray rocks and used helicopters to get a feel for it! Totally crazy, but what else could they do? 


My favorite chapter was the one describing the Gemini 10 mission. It was Collins' first mission, and he orbited the earth for several days just skimming above the atmosphere. I was so thrilled at the moment it came time for him to do his space walk. Can you imagine, being inside a spaceship and opening the door to the outside? During his first walk he simply opened the door and stood up in his chair to look around outside. I love the way he describes it. 


"...this is the best view of the universe a human has ever had. Down below the earth is barely discernible, as the occasional lightning flash along a row of thunderheads. There is just enough of an eerie bluish-gray glow to allow my eye to differentiate between clouds and water and land, and this in turn allows motion to be measured. We are gliding across the world in total silence, with absolute smoothness; a motion of stately grace which makes me feel God-like as I stand erect in my sideways chariot, cruising the night sky.”


After the Gemini 10 mission, Collins was a "real" astronaut, and can you believe it, one flight in space qualifies you as a pro and gets you assigned to a mission to the moon. Through a series of events and circumstances, he was moved around several times before being assigned to the Apollo 11 mission, the first mission to put a man on the moon. Though only Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would be in the lunar landing party (and therefore receive all the fame and recognition), Michael Collins traveled with them. He stayed up in the Command Module and circled the moon alone while they were down on the surface of the moon. I love the way he describes his feelings during this time of complete solitude. 


"I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it. If a count were taken, the score would be three billion plus two over on the other side of the moon, and one plus God only knows what on this side. I feel this powerfully—not as fear or loneliness—but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation. I like the feeling." 


This truly was an amazing book and I was almost sad to put it down after turning the last page. I am in awe of just how much went in to the challenge to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth. It is absolutely incredible what man can achieve when the will is there. This was an incredible journey!

My rating: 9 out of 10

February's Book: Carrying the Fire

The years that have passed since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the moon in July 1969 have done nothing to alter the fundamental wonder of the event: man reaching the moon remains one of the great events - technical and spiritual - of our lifetime.

In this remarkable book, Michael Collins conveys, in a very personal way, the drama, beauty, and humor of that adventure. He also traces his development from his first flight experiences in the air force, through his days as a test pilot, to his Apollo 11 space walk, presenting an evocative picture of the joys of flight as well as a new perspective on time, light, and movement from someone who has seen the fragile Earth from the other side of the moon.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Touching the Void: Thoughts

Touching the Void is a gripping story that kept my adrenaline pumping from beginning to end. My heart was literally pounding out of my chest at times as I journeyed alongside Joe and Simon up and over the west face Siula Grande. I never realized before just how perilous mountain climbing actually is! Even before the accident and the subsequent escape attempt, they were constantly balancing on a razor-thin edge between life and death. Think of it, at any moment the floor beneath your feet (or your sleeping bag for that matter) can just disappear!

“There was no warning. No crack. One minute I was climbing, the next I was falling. It [the ridge] must have broken away 40 feet back from the edge. It broke behind me, I think; or under my feet. Either way, it took me down instantly. It was so fast!”

But honestly, it wasn’t the thrill of adventure, or the heart-dropping adrenaline rush that I most enjoyed about this book. It was the internal struggle of a man faced with his own mortality that kept me turning pages. Joe Simpson was able to put into words some of man’s deepest fears, in a way that those of us sitting safely at home on our couches could almost relate to. After his rope is cut and Joe finds himself alive and teetering on a ledge inside of a bottomless crevasse, he is forced to face the fact that he is going to die, and there is nothing at all he can do about it.

“In the end, I decided that three days would pass. It was sheltered in the crevasse, and with my sleeping bag I could survive a good few days. I imagined how long it would seem; a long long period of twilight, and darkness, drifting from exhausted sleep into half-consciousness. Maybe the last half would be dreamless sleeping, ebbing away quietly. I thought carefully of the end. It wasn’t how I had ever imagined it. It seemed pretty sordid. I hadn’t expected a blaze of glory when it came, nor had I thought it would be like this slow pathetic fade into nothing. I didn’t want it to be like that.”

Against all odds, Joe literally crawls out of the crevasse and back to base camp, arriving just hours before his companions are planning to break camp. How was he able to overcome such a monumental struggle? He spoke frequently of a "voice" inside of him that urged him on. Every time he wanted to rest, or give up entirely, the voice would quietly pester him until he pushed on. It is this unnamed voice inside of every man that pushes us on when we think we have given our last. It is this voice which drives us onward into the unknown. It is this voice which I hope to become more familiar with through “The Man’s Book Club”!

My rating: 8 out of 10

January's Book: Touching the Void

Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death. 


The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall but, crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten, was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson hopped, hobbled, and crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching the base hours before Yates had planned to break camp. 


How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival; a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship.


(Summary from Goodreads.com)