Article Contributed on: 12/21/2007 10:50:39 AM
Thursday, January 17, 7:00 p.m.
At the American Mountaineering Center, 10th & Washington, downtown Golden
Free, open to the Public
The High Altitude Mountaineering Section of the Colorado Mountain Club presents Gerry Roach. Join Gerry for a photographic slide presentation of all the photos from his two autobiographical books "Transcendent Summits" (2004) and "Ride the Breath" (2007). Following the presentation there will be time for questions and discussion.
In part two of his gripping autobiography, world-class climber Gerry Roach continues his action-packed tales of mountaineering around the world. His stories are laced with a hard-edged reality that is tempered by his spiritual growth. "Ride the Breath" follows his continuing quests, picking up where his first book "Transcendent Summits" ends.
This candid memoir takes you to some of Earth's most captivating peaks and lands: the Tetons, the North Cascades, the Canadian Rockies and Yukon, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, the Antarctic, Rainier, Iceland, Norway, the Alps, Africa's fabled Kilimanjaro, the Australian outback, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Hawaii.
In each of these stories Gerry better defines the edges between risk and reward, lust and loss, dreamtime and terrortime, and perhaps most importantly, transcendence and transgression. Gerry has a unique ability to take his readers into the mountains with him and hold them on multiple belays. In the end, the life lessons learned transcend his climbs, allowing Gerry to include his readers on his climb for peace, which becomes an every-growing Odyssean exploration.
Gerry is the second person ever to climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents. He has climbed actively around the world for six decades, and been on 35 major expeditions. In 2000 he became the first person to climb North America's ten highest peaks. He is a CMC member, and lives in Boulder.