I received a copy of this book from PenguinRandomHouse Canada for an honest review. I’m attracted to memoirs like this and since it was written by a fellow Canadian and a lot of it takes place near where I live I was even more intrigued. I have a hiker and kayaker in my family so knew of many of the locations mentioned. I am also a camper so have been to a lot of the places talked about as well as I’m very familiar with the towns and cities. What I really have no knowledge of is climbing. In my travels in the Rockies and Joshua Tree I have watched climbers with fascination. I have spent time just sitting and marvelling at them. Jan tells her story from her dysfunctional childhood to how she became part of the climbing community. She references people such as Sharon Wood who is well known as the first North American woman to climb Everest. The book details Jan’s climbing and her personal life. I have to say I found her story very compelling although I questioned some of her personal choices. She details how her confidence in her climbing skills fluctuated at certain times in her life and how that influenced some of her decisions. Her personal life had ups and downs and had a lot of sorrow. Many of her climbing buddies have died in their pursuits. Her boyfriend Dan tragically died climbing and it was heartbreaking reading about this. Dan had been such a powerful influence and a loving positive person in her life. My heart broke along with her. She then went on to have a tumultuous relationship and marriage with another climber who was the father of her two children. Throughout all this Jan was still trying to find herself. It was so wonderful to see Jan become empowered and go on to pursue her goals and dreams in defiance of her controlling husband. This book is both an adventure story of Jan’s climbing and also a personal story of her relationships, her life as a mother, and as a confident woman. The one problem I had with the book is it felt rushed at the end. Her story jumps from her early thirties to fifties with little information as to what she did in those years. I would have liked to hear more about her starting her career as a teacher and then about her going back to further her education and a few more details leading up to her fifties. Overall this book completely captivated me and I couldn’t stop reading it. It’s one those books that you feel sad when it ends and that’s a sign of a good book!

The author's descriptions of climbing and the ethos and community surrounding climbing are interesting. I didn't find her personal details to be as interesting as I think they would have been if she had concentrated more on depth and less on quantity of her experiences. She jumps from one event to another without treating her experiences with enough insight. That being said, I enjoyed the book for what it was. I just think it could have been more.

My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.