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The Calling
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  • Published: 7 March 2017
  • ISBN: 9781524755744
  • Imprint: RH US Audio Adult
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $23.00
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The Calling

A Life Rocked by Mountains

  • Barry Blanchard
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With heart-pounding descriptions of avalanches and treacherous ascents, Barry Blanchard chronicles his transformation from a poor Native American/white kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world. At thirteen, he learned to rappel when he joined the 1292 Lord Strathcone’s Horse Army Cadets. Soon kicked out for insubordination, he was already hooked on climbing and saw alpinism as a way to make his single mother proud and end his family’s cycle of poverty. He describes early climbs attempted with nothing to guide him but written trail descriptions and the cajones of youth. He slowly acquires the skills, equipment and partners necessary to tackle more and more difficult climbs, farther and farther afield: throughout the Canadian Rockies, into Alaska and the French Alps and on to Everest, Peru, and the challenging mountains in Pakistan. From each he learns lessons that only nature and extreme endeavor can teach. This is the story of the culture of climbing in the days of punk rock, spurred on by the rhythm of adrenaline and the arrogance of youth. It is also a portrait of the power of the mountains to lift us – physically, emotionally, intellectually,
  • Published: 7 March 2017
  • ISBN: 9781524755744
  • Imprint: RH US Audio Adult
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $23.00
Categories:

Praise for The Calling

Praise for Barry Blanchard:

  • "The Calling is sure to make any reader with a shred of adventurous inclination wish to have climbed with Mr. Blanchard during the storm years of his strength. Once upon a time, the classics of the genre impelled Barry Blanchard into the alpine game. It is as inevitable as one of his cherished mountain sunrises that some young men and women will glean the same inspiration from The Calling." -- Wall Street Journal

  • "A legacy of technical and literary pioneers in alpine climbing in this extraordinarily well-written mountaineering memoir." -- Foreword Magazine

  • "Certainly not disappointed by the tales of climbing, I was also deeply impressed by the bravery, quality, tenderness, and vulnerability of Blanchard's writing." -- Elevationoutdoors.com

  • "What makes The Calling powerful is the fact that Blanchard does not varnish the story of where his chosen path takes him. As a result, the narrative is at times heartbreaking. The closeness that Blanchard discovers with certain climbing partners becomes painfully obvious as they are killed in accidents." -- Adventure Sports Journal

  • "I laughed. I cried. I thought about life. I couldn't put down [this] long-awaited memoir." -- Rocky Mountain Outlook