THE LEDGE

The tragic saga of a mountain climb gone awry.

With the assistance of Denver Post reporter Vaughan, veteran mountain climber Davidson recounts how he and the late Mike Price attempted to summit Mount Rainier in the summer of 1992. As the pair of kindred spirits snapped a final photo from the peak, they took an 80-foot plunge into a crevasse. While Davidson managed to climb his way to safety, Price did not, forcing the survivor to return home and fulfill his burdensome responsibility of explaining the death to Price's family. Ostensibly, this is a survival story, but it’s also a story of trust that explores a precarious situation in which men are literally bound to one another for survival. Though the narrative is highly personal, its implications reach much farther, offering a philosophical inquiry of how men react once the safety nets have been cut from beneath them. As the authors make clear, the life of a mountain climber depends on little more than footholds, carabineers and luck. As confirmed by Price’s death, skill is of little use when luck doesn't fall one’s way.