Strange and Dangerous Dreams: The Fine Line Between Adventure and Madness [Hardcover]

Climber and psychiatrist Geoff Powter tells the stories of explorers and climbers, from Meriwether Lewis to Aleister Crowley, who may have suffered from psychological ailments. In many of the cases, the individuals may have been driven to their desperate adventures by their mental and emotional suffering. Powter gives engaging sketches of their lives and addresses the difference between them and the risk-taking mountaineers and explorers who may be labeled 'crazy' by the public, but in fact are entirely sane. He has a relatively good sense of historical mentalities and the contexts in which his subjects lived. In the cases where he suggests clinical diagnoses, they seem sensible (he doesn't accuse anyone of having a random 'death wish') and based on evidence.

As interesting as I found the book, I wish that Powter had compared the experiences of his subjects with his own extensive mountaineering experience. So many of the emotions felt by the troubled adventurers, and so many of their decisions, seem similar to those of less troubled individuals engaged in the same activities -- only more exaggerated. I suspect there's a gray area between the two groups, not a sharp dividing line, and I think some discussion of that factor would have enhanced the book.

If you are one of the intrepid few who soldiered beyond the flipped-out cover flap, congratulations, you have just discovered an entire set of uniquely interesting tales; each of which begs the question: Why do seemingly sane people risk their lives in both fantastic and frivolous pursuits when they could be someplace exceedingly dull, planted on their pants-pockets like the rest of us?

Enter author and clinical psychologist Geoff Powter's eleven gripping tales (...well ten for me, excepting "The Wickedest Man"), all determined to enlighten the uninitiated.

Meet the Burdened:
1) Meriwether Lewis: Ying to Clark's Yang, Meriwether returns from America's great Corps of Discovery to find only deepening darkness and an unforeseen end.
2) Robert Falcon Scott: Second to the South Pole in a race that honored only first, this doomed explorer whispers from the grave, "Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell."
3) Solomon Andree: With little more preparation than crossed fingers, this balloon bound North Pole hopeful states, "Shall we be thought mad...?" and then promptly threw caution, and his life, to the wind.
4) Donald Crowhurst: Would be global sailor, Crowhurst slipped anchor to ethics and sanity, and when he discovered the world was flat, he promptly slipped off the edge.

The Bent:
1) John Franklin: Beginning with a quest for the Northwest Passage, he ends with, "...a cooking pot, filled with boiled human bones."
2) Jean Batten: After narcissistically fighting her way to world-crossing, record-setting flights, she slips into half-centuries of singular loneliness.
3) Aleister Crowley: "The Wickedest Man in the World," and subject of an utterly repulsive chapter, this fringe miscreant is the cover's inspiration and responsible for my considering four stars instead of five. Why didn't I go there? Despite MY glowing red line between interestingly driven and insanely perverse, I realized that this cracked case study might be the star for Powter's more psychology-slanted readers. Gentle others... beware.

The Lost:
1) Claudio Corti: After this "...befuddled child in the body of a man," was hoisted up the face of the Eigerwand on another man's back, he then inexplicably knighted himself the "first Italian to climb the North Wall." Wow!
2) Maurice Wilson: Mastered a plan to be the first to summit Mount Everest after also becoming the first to crash a plane on it.
3) Earl Denman: This "Romantic Heart" never summated Everest, but his friend Tenzing Norgay did - wearing Earl's red balaclava. "...at least a little part of him has reached his goal," reflected Tenzing.
4) Guy, Johnny, Bill Waterman: A man and his sons; three climbing men fated for separate and sad declines.

Excepting "The Wickedest..." for my sensitive heart, this collection is an excellent look into the minds of our foremost heroes and retreating idiots. Let us not forget them, but for God's sake, let us not emulate them.

Ignore the cover art. Buy this great book.

Being an avid reader of mountaineering literature, both historic and contemporary, I was already familiar with the accomplishments (or lack thereof) of the climbers in this book. However, seen from writer Geoff Powter's perspective, who is both a practicing psychologist and a veteran of many important ascents in North America and the Himalaya, his arguments for inspired madness have breathed new life into what had once seemed all too familiar territory.

The same can be said of the others in the book who he selected from a roster of many hundreds, if not thousands, of possibilities. Whether launching their flimsy craft onto the high seas, or into the air scant meters above the seas, all of the adventurers had one thing in common: they were swimming against the enervating currents of conventionality.

If there's one thing that I've been able to take away from this reading, it's this: don't take the well-worn phrase, "Because it's there!" too lightly.

Pat Morrow, author Beyond Everest, Quest For The Seven Summits