LOFTY TALES

Avid mountain-climbing enthusiast Borland recounts his experiences on some of the world’s most difficult peaks.

The author’s interest in climbing began after he completed graduate school and a two-year stint in the Army, when he had the means to pursue leisure activities, such as backpacking in the Adirondack Mountains with his friends. By the time he’d completed all 46 of the park’s highest elevations, he was hooked on the outdoor life, and when he relocated to Arizona, he began exploring the ranges out west. Most of Borland’s story is organized by the locations of the peaks he’s visited. The second chapter is about the highest mountains on each continent, including Mount McKinley, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Elbrus, and the third addresses high points in various states, such as Gannett Peak in Wyoming and Mount Rainier in Washington. Borland lays out the timeline of his training, his booking of guides, and his actual climb up each mountain, describing the equipment used and some details about establishing base camps and avoiding specific dangers. There’s some compelling historical and cultural detail in some of these tales, as when his travels to Mount Elbrus took him through Moscow during the August Coup in 1991. Despite the title, however, the book is more of a travelogue than it is a collection of swashbuckling stories. It also gets repetitive, especially during the third chapter, in which Borland tells of climbing some of the peaks in just a few hours. The author also doesn’t offer much about his emotional reactions to witnessing some of the world’s greatest vistas. Later chapters about cycling, hunting, and Borland’s time in the military feel extraneous, although he does explain that the primary audience for his book is his own children and grandchildren.

A pleasant and sometimes engaging account that may interest outdoor hobbyists.