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Product Identifiers

PublisherFree Press

ISBN-101416566996

ISBN-139781416566991

eBay Product ID (ePID)69622521

Product Key Features

Book TitleHalfway to Heaven : My White-Knuckled--And Knuckleheaded--Quest for the Rocky Mountain High

Number of Pages288 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2009

TopicGeneral, Mountaineering

IllustratorYes

GenreNature, Sports & Recreation

AuthorMark Obmascik

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight16 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2008-049192

Dewey Edition22

Reviews"Obmascik tells the often funny, sometimes moving, always fascinating story of taking up the challenge of a midlife-time to climb all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains. He takes us into the strange world of obsessed mountaineers -- past and present -- and vividly describes the ardors, dangers and joys of chasing that Rocky Mountain high. Whether you ever plan to climb a mountain -- or just want to summit from your armchair -- Obmascik's engaging style makes him the perfect companion for the trip." -- Susan Freinkel, author of the 2008 National Outdoor Book Award winner, American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, "As Obmascik chases the meaning of life across the haute peaks of the Rockies, he touches something in your heart even while he knocks on your funny bone. Halfway to Heaven is deft and delightful. Always minding his wife's admonition never to hike alone, Obmascik proves once again that it's the journey -- and the characters met -- not the summits that really matter the most."-- Dean King, author of Skeletons on the Zahara, " Halfway to Heaven goes all the way in explaining what it feels like to climb all of Colorado's fabled Fourteeners. Obmascik's excellent writing follows more than the twists of the trails; Mark generously laces his quest for the heights with insights, history, humor, politics, personalities, record runs, friends, family, flora and fauna. Halfway to Heaven is a fortune cache for everyone."-- Gerry Roach, author of Colorado's Fourteeners -- From Hikes to Climbs, "The mountains of Colorado reach great heights, and so does this book. It's funny, smart, fascinating, poignant -- and well worth scaling!"-- Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor ofThe Last Lecture, Obmascik's saga revels in off-color jokes and humiliating pratfalls; the result feels like a raucous bowling night, with moderate oxygen deprivation, on the brink of an abyss." - Publishers Weekly, "The effort is recounted with wit and style, a much easier read than climbing those mountains." - Sports Illustrated, "Halfway to Heavengoes all the way in explaining what it feels like to climb all of Colorado's fabled Fourteeners. Obmascik's excellent writing follows more than the twists of the trails; Mark generously laces his quest for the heights with insights, history, humor, politics, personalities, record runs, friends, family, flora and fauna.Halfway to Heavenis a fortune cache for everyone." -- Gerry Roach, author ofColorado's Fourteeners -- From Hikes to Climbs, "With every lumbering step and gasping breath, Mark Obmascik proves that you don't have to scale Everest to conquer nature -- or write a great book about the great outdoors. Halfway to Heaven is an oxygen-deprived romp, a coming-of-middle-age adventure story that is by turns hilarious, gripping, poignant, and uplifting."-- Stefan Fatsis, author of A Few Seconds of Panic and Word Freak, " Halfway to Heaven , Mark Obmascik's account of his quest to climb all of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, should prove an inspiration to middle-aged mountaineers everywhere. For all of his comically recounted misadventures, Obmascik has the true mountaineer's love of high places, and a professional writer's gift of conveying that love to the reader."-- Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History at Hamilton College, coauthor of the 2008 National Outdoor Book Award winner, Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, " Halfway to Heaven , Mark Obmascik's account of his quest to climb all of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, should prove an inspiration to middle-aged mountaineers everywhere. For all of his comically recounted misadventures, Obmascik has the true mountaineer's love of high places, and a professional writer's gift of conveying that love to the reader." -- Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History at Hamilton College, coauthor of the 2008 National Outdoor Book Award winner, Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, "Obmascik's saga revels in off-color jokes and humiliating pratfalls; the result feels like a raucous bowling night, with moderate oxygen deprivation, on the brink of an abyss." - Publishers Weekly, "As Obmascik chases the meaning of life across the haute peaks of the Rockies, he touches something in your heart even while he knocks on your funny bone. Halfway to Heaven is deft and delightful. Always minding his wife's admonition never to hike alone, Obmascik proves once again that it's the journey -- and the characters met -- not the summits that really matter the most." -- Dean King, author of Skeletons on the Zahara, "With every lumbering step and gasping breath, Mark Obmascik proves that you don't have to scale Everest to conquer nature -- or write a great book about the great outdoors. Halfway to Heaven is an oxygen-deprived romp, a coming-of-middle-age adventure story that is by turns hilarious, gripping, poignant, and uplifting." -- Stefan Fatsis, author of A Few Seconds of Panic and Word Freak, "The mountains of Colorado reach great heights, and so does this book. It's funny, smart, fascinating, poignant -- and well worth scaling!"-- Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor of The Last Lecture, "Halfway to Heaven, Mark Obmascik's account of his quest to climb all of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, should prove an inspiration to middle-aged mountaineers everywhere. For all of his comically recounted misadventures, Obmascik has the true mountaineer's love of high places, and a professional writer's gift of conveying that love to the reader."-- Maurice Isserman, James L. Ferguson Professor of History at Hamilton College, coauthor of the 2008 National Outdoor Book Award winner,Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes, " Halfway to Heaven goes all the way in explaining what it feels like to climb all of Colorado's fabled Fourteeners. Obmascik's excellent writing follows more than the twists of the trails; Mark generously laces his quest for the heights with insights, history, humor, politics, personalities, record runs, friends, family, flora and fauna. Halfway to Heaven is a fortune cache for everyone." -- Gerry Roach, author of Colorado's Fourteeners -- From Hikes to Climbs, "Obmascik tells the often funny, sometimes moving, always fascinating story of taking up the challenge of a midlife-time to climb all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains. He takes us into the strange world of obsessed mountaineers -- past and present -- and vividly describes the ardors, dangers and joys of chasing that Rocky Mountain high. Whether you ever plan to climb a mountain -- or just want to summit from your armchair -- Obmascik's engaging style makes him the perfect companion for the trip."-- Susan Freinkel, author of the 2008 National Outdoor Book Award winner, American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, "The mountains of Colorado reach great heights, and so does this book. It's funny, smart, fascinating, poignant -- and well worth scaling!" -- Jeffrey Zaslow, coauthor of The Last Lecture, "Obmascik tells the often funny, sometimes moving, always fascinating story of taking up the challenge of a midlife-time to climb all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains. He takes us into the strange world of obsessed mountaineers -- past and present -- and vividly describes the ardors, dangers and joys of chasing that Rocky Mountain high. Whether you ever plan to climb a mountain -- or just want to summit from your armchair -- Obmascik's engaging style makes him the perfect companion for the trip." -- Susan Freinkel, author of the 2008 National Outdoor Book Award winner,American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree

Dewey Decimal796.52209788

SynopsisFat, forty-four, father of three sons, and facing a vasectomy, Mark Obmascik would never have guessed that his next move would be up a 14,000-foot mountain. But when his twelve-year-old son gets bitten by the climbing bug at summer camp, Obmascik can't resist the opportunity for some high-altitude father-son bonding by hiking a peak together. After their first joint climb, addled by the thin air, Obmascik decides to keep his head in the clouds and try scaling all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains, known as the Fourteeners -- and to do them in less than one year . The result is Halfway to Heaven , Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Obmascik's rollicking, witty, sometimes harrowing, often poignant chronicle of an outrageous midlife adventure that is no walk in the park, although sometimes it's A Walk in the Woods -- but with more sweat and less oxygen. Half a million people try climbing a Colorado Fourteener every year, but only twelve hundred have reported summiting them all. Can an overweight, stay-at-home dad become No. 1,201? With his ebullient personality and sparkling prose, Obmascik brings us inside the quirky, colorful subculture of mountaineering obsessives who summit these mountains year after year. Honoring his concerned wife's orders not to climb alone, Obmascik drags old friends up the slopes, some of them lifelong flatlanders tasting thin air for the first time, and lures seasoned Rockies junkies into taking on a huffing, puffing newbie by bribing them with free beer, lunches, and car washes. Among the new friends he makes are an ex-drag racer trying to perform a headstand on every summit, the lead oboe player in a Hebrew salsa band, and a climber with the counterproductive pre-climb ritual of gulping down four beers and a burrito. Along the way, Obmascik experiences the raw, rowdy, and rarely seen intimacy of male friendship, braced by the double intoxicants of adrenaline and altitude. Though danger is always present -- the Colorado Fourteeners have killed more climbers than Mount Everest -- Mark knows his aging scalp can't afford the hair-raising adventures of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air , and his quest becomes a story of family, friendship, and fraternity. In Obmascik's summer of climbing, he loses fifteen pounds, finds a few dozen man-dates, and gains respect for the history of these storied mountains (home to cannibalism, gold rushes, shoot-outs, and one of the nation's most famed religious shrines). As much about midlife and male bonding as it is about mountains, Halfway to Heaven tells how weekend warriors can survive them all as they reach for those most distant things -- the summits of mountains and a teenage son. And as one man exceeds the physical achievements of his youth, he discovers that age -- like summit height -- is just a number.

LC Classification NumberGV199.42.C6O26 2009