Desire & Ice: A Search for Perspective Atop Denali

by David Brill, Bill Hatcher (Photographer)

Denali (Mt. McKinley) is accessible to climbers with limited alpine experience?provided they are in top condition and able to contend with the worst weather on Earth. In Desire & Ice, novice climber David Brill tells how he rose to a challenge that subjected him to physical and psychological extremes. Brill was way out of his comfort zone on Denali, and in this lighthearted take on his achievement, he tells us all about it. Denali presents the greatest vertical gain?from just above sea level to 20,320 feet?of any mountain on the planet. Sited 2,400 miles north of Everest, it is notorious for 100-mile-per-hour winds and temperatures of 60 to 100 degrees below zero. Denali?s thin air and 21 hours of sun per summer day create a near-Himalayan climbing environment. Then there?s the specter of death on the mountain. Since a group of miners (the Sourdough Expedition) defied all odds and reach the North Peak in 1910, Denali has claimed the lives of nearly 100 climbers. These extreme conditions and storied history are woven throughout Brill?s account of his own attempt to scale Denali. Trained by expert guides, the 45-year-old fledgling mountaineer mastered the skills to propel him from sofa to summit. His account overflows with vivid personalities and As Brill and his rope-mates cross glaciers and crevasses, claw their way up walls of ice, and wait out a killer storm, the author probes the motivation of his guides and fellow climbers?including two women whose quest for the summit ends in a flesh-freezing bathroom break.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Mazola1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desire and Ice is the story of an ordinary man (as opposed to a professional mountaineer) who climbed Mount McKinley. Deciding in his forties that he would like the challenge, Brill signed up for a guided expedition to climb Mount McKinley. At 20,320 feet, McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America, and has some of the worst weather anywhere as well as a double digit death toll.

While Desire and Ice isn't the greatest climbing book ever written, it is well written, fast paced, focussed and entertaining. One of the most memorable things about the book is that it tells the story of an expedition that worked. Not only did it reach the summit, but the nine members who did so bonded and became friends, which is something of a rarity in expeditions. As with many expeditions, this one was composed on a group of strangers. No doubt based on long experience, the pilot who flew them to base camp told them they were friends then, but would hate each other by the end. But against all odds, that didn't happen. Somehow, despite bad weather, personality quirks, boredom, physical ills, and lack of privacy, this group avoided conflict and controversy, and left with stronger bonds of friendship than when they arrived. Perhaps the fact that they were all amateurs accounts for this, for although everyone wanted to reach the summit, none were willing to step all over someone else to get there.

Also interesting, although not entirely convincing, is Brill's explanation of why he went to McKinley and what the climb meant to him. He says that the mountain "exposed me to physical and emotional challenges more extreme thatn any I'd faced before. It forced me to tap reserves of strength and endurance I never realized I possessed. Compared with kicking steps to the top of Denali, even the most pitched battles at sea level seem remarkably uncomplicated....Denali was my Everest. It pushed me farther and led me higher than I ever imagined I could go.The expedition marked a departure from the 'quiet desperation' Thoreau wrote about."

Somehow, I don't think scaling a tall mountain was what Thoreau had in mind as the remedy for the quiet desperation he wrote about. Thoreau sat still at pond's edge and though about life. For some people, and Brill may well be among them, it takes risking life and limb doing something that regularly gets people maimed and killed to get them to really think about their lives.

[Nathan Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of us who've had any outdoors experience have climbed a mountain at one point or another. It could be anything from one of the Mississippian mounds to Mt. Whitney, one of the PNW volcanoes, or everything in between. From a half-hour stroll up a small coastal knoll, to a multi-day technical climb over 10,000 ft. But we all experience the same physical and emotional arc. The anticipation...the exertion...the uncertainty, the trials, the tribulations...the thrill of reaching the summit, or conversely the disappointment of making a strategic withdrawal...the return to civilization bearing all our stories. On a mountain like Denali/McKinley, all that is amplified ten-fold and Brill does a phenomenal job of bringing the reader along for their own virtual climb. After reading, you'll either say, "Yeah, I wanna do that!" or, "Nope, that's not for me!"

Despite the excellent color photos included, it would have been cool to have had a few more, including shots of the entire mountain, and maybe a map. Otherwise, I went and looked all that up online later.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book of one man's climb to the top of Mt. McKinley while on my own trip to Alaska. While he climbed the peak on his own power, I simply flew in a prop plane over and around that majestic mountain. After reading Brill's book, I decided that my method probably was the wiser of the two.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brill is a talented writer. He's wrote my favorite Appalachian Trail book. I'm not a mountaineer, but he writes so that anyone can understand the struggle and emotions involved in summiting a peak.

[Leah Sayre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book! Read it in one day!!!