The Altitude Journals: A Seven-Year Journey from the Lowest Point in My Life to the Highest Point on Earth

by David J. Mauro, Chas Hoppe (Editor), Amanda Martin Hoppe (Editor)

Overview

When David Mauro was in his forties, his life hit rock bottom. With nothing to lose, he left everything he knew behind and set out on an epic international adventure. For the next seven years, Dave trudged across glaciers and frozen wastelands and through dense, dangerous forests. He communed with penguins and elephants, kept company with cannibals and gunrunners, and spoke with the dead. And though he’d never been a climber, he ended up joining history’s courageous few when he ascended into the clouds to stand at the summit of Mt. Everest.

Drawn from Dave’s personal diaries, The Altitude Journals is the poignant, inspiring, and endlessly exciting true story of a remarkable midlife crisis. It is an unforgettable tale of one man who went to amazing extremes to repair a shattered life—and how he regained the powers to love and forgive, and to believe in himself once again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544500508
Publisher:	David J Mauro
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	456
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

In addition to working as a Certified Financial Planner, David Mauro writes for Adventures Northwest magazine and blogs extensively on topics ranging from mountain climbing to why sardines are safe. In the course of his acting career David has appeared in several commercials for television, the internet, print and radio. He is an improv alumni of The Upfront Theatre, frequent consumer of emergency room services, and builder of dubious water craft. The father of two sons (Trevor, living in Seattle, and Chase, living in Beijing), David resides in Bellingham, Washington with Lin Lehn ...to whom he is permanently engaged.

Editorial Reviews

2018-08-03

A financial planner becomes a mountaineer and conquers the Seven Summits in this gripping debut memoir.

Mauro was living what he describes as a "comfortable, safe life" in Washington state when, at age 44, he decided to become a mountain climber. His motivation for doing so was complex, but divorce and depression were key factors. The next seven years saw him climb the highest mountain peaks on each continent, known as the Seven Summits: Denali in Alaska, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Elbrus in Russia, Aconcagua in Argentina, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia, and finally, Everest in Asia. The memoir tracks his progress as he prepared for and completed each climb while also battling his inner demons with a therapist's help. His development is remarkable as he progressed from being a naïve beginner tackling Denali to a focused mountaineer summiting Everest. His psychological journey is also notable, as he became a braver, more determined person with a deeper sense of self-awareness. His life took an unexpected turn in 2007, when he found love through online dating. Mauro has a hard-hitting, straight-from-the-shoulder writing style: "Then comes the moment when your dream turns on you. You are in pain. You imagine the summit. But instead of being energized by that image, you extrapolate your current condition into an unbearable sum of suffering to come, and that sum easily dwarfs the payoff. You are done." He also displays a profound understanding of the psychological battles that one must win in order to achieve extraordinary physical feats. His memoir is a lesson in positive thinking—something essential to a mountaineer, as being "fearful or agitated" causes the body to use more oxygen. Mauro also has a wickedly wry sense of humor; in a list of things he learned while visiting Papua New Guinea, he notes: "It is advisable to yield on price when bartering at the point of a bayonet." Overall, this is a sharply executed, inspirational, and thoroughly entertaining read. (The book includes photos of the author and other people he met during his journey.)

An arresting work that captures the struggles of both mountain climbing and everyday life.

Kirkus Reviews