Journey from Mount Rainier

The literature of adventure is replete with tales of fatal outcomes but this honest and brave book about a mother and the life and death of her mountain-climbing son expands and enriches our necessary knowledge of the grief and loss that disaster exacts from surviving family members and friends. To say that a book about the rawest grief and deepest sorrow is a great pleasure to read-that its a book of delights and uncanny discoveries and not just of tears-is perhaps not as contradictory as it seems. For in dying heroically and far too young Sean Ryan inspired his mother to embark on her own life-altering adventure of dangerous remembrance whose hard-won summit memorial is this moving and beautifully crafted memoir. -Hal Espen editor Outside 1999-2006