Walk of Ages

As a hiker, I love to read hiking memoirs. I want to hear about the injuries, the tears, the snakes and bears, how beautiful it is sleeping outside after a hard day of miles. This one was a little different. It’s told in alternating parts, between the hiker and her dad as support. In some ways I feel like there wasn’t much talk about the hiking, short of the descriptions of foot pain (and after the Mt. Whitney climb was completed). It was written more about the parallels between this hike and the dad’s near identical hike in 1974. I found it inspiring and funny, but I missed the hike. I would have liked to see more of that and less of the talk of gathering for lunch and dinner and beers at the Winnebago. The last third of the book got into a little more of the scenery and physicality, but it just was a little lacking for me overall compared to other memoirs I’ve read.

Nice tribute. Such an amazing journey of course but the fun parallels between father and daughter and the “shared” journey was wonderful.

In 2017, Withanee Andersen retraced the footsteps of her father Jim Andersen’s epic 1974 hike from the peak of Mt. Whitney to Badwater in Death Valley, taking her from the highest elevation in the lower forty-eight to the lowest point in the western hemisphere. “Walk of Ages” tells the story of the hike, with alternating narration from Withanee and Jim, who served as support team to Withanee and her fellow “Sandwalkers,” along with Withanee’s mother Val. It’s a remarkable journey in which the goal of getting to Badwater is anything but a gimme. Step by grueling step, the Walk becomes a touchstone for Withanee, as well as a moving tribute to her beloved dad.

What I loved most about “Walk of Ages” was the dynamic between Withanee and Jim. You can feel the love and respect flowing between them as they share their different perspectives on the highs and lows of each day’s leg of the hike. I also admired the distinctive nature of the Walk. Although Jim had in some sense blazed a trail for Withanee with his 1974 trek, there was rarely any actual trail for Withanee and the Second Edition Sandwalkers. Just like Jim and the original Sandwalkers in 1974, her team spent much of the hike walking backcountry, or along highways, revising and reinventing their route on the fly—albeit with the aid of technology that didn’t exist in 1974.

What I came away wishing for more of was a feeling of immersion in the hike. I wish there had been more vivid description and reflection, more specific scenes evoking a sense of wonder and adventure. Even so, “Walk of Ages” is well worth the reading journey. There are a lot of hiking memoirs out there, but the goal of walking in the footsteps of someone you love makes this one truly unique.

My thanks to NetGalley and the University of Nevada Press for providing me a copy of “Walk of Ages” in exchange for my honest review.

Walk of Ages tells two stories 0f the same journey. One taken by Jim and many years later repeated by his daughter Withanee and her brother and fiancé. The self named “Sandwalkers” hike to the highest point in the U.S., the peak of Mount Whitney to the lowest point in Death Valley. Each night in camp Jim reads the chapter that will cover the next day’s hike to the current Sandwalkers. Each chapter gives us Withanee’s report on the hike for the day and the Jim’s report for the day as he and his wife perform the support role providing food, moleskin for blisters, and ice cold beer.
It’s a great story and a wonderful way for Withanee and her brother to honor her father’s expedition years before. It felt a little bit repetitive to me….hike, knee pain, blisters, beer. The father/daughter bond was obvious though and it was quite an accomplishment for The Sandwalkers: Version 2 to honor and share this with their parents, especially dad.
#netgalley. #WalkofAges

A daughter setting out on the hike of a lifetime with three friends to follow in the footsteps of a hike her dad did ~fifty years earlier?? Sign me up!!
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In 2017, Withanee set out to make the 130 mile trek from the peak of Mt. Whitney (highest point in the contiguous 48 states) to Badwater Basin (lowest point in the contiguous 48 states). This was a trek her father had first done in 1974. This time around, Withanee's group was supported by her father and mother in an RV, so the book bounces between her perspective and her dad's perspective (both supporting her and reminiscing on his trek). ⁠
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I do think it would be a lot of fun to do an activity like this and then write a book about it with your dad! The concept was great, the execution is fine. All in all it's a quick, easy read that might get you excited for hiking season as we welcome spring!

I tried but I had to DNF. Nothing was BAD. The writing was fine. You can tell that’s not their day job but it was readable. Occasionally a little try-hard about being funny but fine. 2 months things killed this for me.

The OG

Jim references his original hike and his book so freaking much. I felt like I had to go back and read it to fully appreciate this book. That’s suboptimal. Either include Jim’s story or tone down the callbacks.

Politics & Faith

They’re Christian? Fine. Jesus had some solid ideas about how to treat people. I started to waver when they were so self-congratulatory about being ‘friends despite politics.’ A lot of those politics are largely about basic decency, human rights, and effective governance.

He started to lose me when he whined about Bill Clinton turning Death Valley into a national park so he shouldn’t camp in a wash out. Bureaucracy just means they put up a sign to stop the stupid. It was still stupid when he did it. There just wasn’t a sign or government organization preserving the environment. His God made the earth. Why is he salty people are trying to preserve it?

They completely lost me when Jim said he believed in evolution less and less with each passing year. I’m no longer thinking about Jim and Withanee’s journey. I’m wondering where they were on January 6, 2021.

Solid effort but it was deliberately polarizing. The faith and politics could have been toned down or completely omitted. It was unnecessary.

This memoir details Withanee Andersen's 2017 trek from Mt. Whitney to Death Valley, a walk that her father completed in 1974. As a tribute to her father and their relationship, this is a lovely memoir. Chapters alternate between Withanee's description of her walk experience, and her father's description of providing support to her group of hikers. You can definitely feel the love and support between the two of them, as well as the others involved. As a piece of literature, however, the memoir fell a little flat for me. The writing is folksy and unpolished, and while the alternating chapters are interesting to provide both the perspective of the hikers and the support party, they do start to feel a bit repetitive at times as each part of the story is essentially told twice. I also wish there would have been some more backstory provided about Jim's 1974 walk - why, for example, did he and his friends embark on this adventure in the first place? The book suggests that they were unprepared and out-of-shape, so the reader is left to wonder what was the original motivation for this experience. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.