From Publishers Weekly
High-altitude mountaineering is typically about conquest?pitting one's physical strength, endurance and courage against nature's most challenging conditions. When 17 survivors of breast cancer took on Argentina's Mt. Aconcagua, one of the seven summits in the world against which all serious climbers test their mettle, their motivations were more complex, however. Their assault on the mountain was a metaphor for vanquishing disease, specifically breast cancer. Gabbard (coauthor, Lou Whitaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide) joined Expedition Inspiration to cover the climb; her intimate portraits of each woman's struggle, with cancer and with the mountain, illuminate the group's loftier goals: to increase public awareness of the disease, to raise funds for research and to inspire unity among breast cancer victims. The women, ranging in age from 18 to 61, discuss the harsh choices they made between lumpectomies and mastectomies, radiation and chemotherapy, and they offer their thoughts on breast reconstruction. Many report loss of libido and disintegration of their intimate partner relationships, and all speak of the terror of recurrence. The January 1995 expedition required little actual technical expertise, and although there were difficulties (two and a half days spent tent-bound in a snowstorm at 16,000 ft., for instance), this is less the usual, dramatic assault-on-the-summit saga than a moving collection of recovery profiles that exalts these women's consciousness-raising goals over physical prowess or survival skills. Editor: Faith Conlon. (July) FYI: A portion of the profits of No Mountain Too High will be donated to breast cancer research.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In 1989, outdoorswoman Laura Evans, 40, lost part of her breast and several lymph nodes to cancer. She was determined not only to survive but to continue mountain climbing, and in 1992, less than two years after ceasing treatment, she undertook to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak. Heartened by her success, she decided to climb another mountain, but
for breast cancer. Thus, Expedition Inspiration was born. With Andrea Martin, founder of the Breast Cancer Fund, she led 17 women who had fought breast cancer, ranging in age from 21 to 61, on an incredible internal as well as external journey. They challenged the western hemisphere's highest peak, Argentina's Mount Aconcagua (22,841 ft.), to heighten awareness of breast cancer. Gabbard, the journalist who accompanied the expedition, has each of its members speak of her diagnosis, treatment, successes, disappointments, and hopes and of overcoming fear and self-doubt to get to the summit. Gabbard's account deserves to reach readers concerned with women's health issues as well as those who enjoy true outdoor adventure stories.
Whitney Scott
