Synopses & Reviews
Adventure writer Mark Jenkins has journeyed around the world, crossing wild country, probing the hinterlands, getting arrested over a dozen times. He has made a life out of doing things the hard way.
The result is a book that dives headfirst into adventure and experience. Jenkins transports the reader with him as he climbs the ice-encrusted Italian Ridge of the Matterhorn, sea kayaks from battlefield to battlefield along the Turkish coast of Gallipoli, sneaks across Tibet to reach Buddhism's holiest lake, descends unexplored canyons in Australia, and traverses the war-torn Simen Mountains of northern Ethiopia.
If you've ever dreamed of escaping, lighting out for the unknown, read this book. In a world increasingly vicarious and secondhand, we all long to make decisions that matter, decisions of consequence. This is precisely what the outdoor life still requires. The Hard Way is a book about doing, not watching -- about leaping before you look.
Review
Los Angeles Times Beautifully crafted stories...brought to life by a poetic and muscular style...Jenkins...traverses the most remote and literally forbidden parts of the globe, at the risk -- and cost -- of illness, injury, and frequent incarceration. But the lure is irresistible.
Review
San Francisco Chronicle From a quest for a tabooed sacred lake in Tibet...to even more quixotic pursuits like examining the American hitchhiking experience in modern times...These diverse exploits are united through a tone set by the author's lucid, creative, and economical prose. Jenkins provides clear insight into the physical, mental, and emotional conditions that should infuse bold ventures.
Review
San Francisco ChronicleFrom a quest for a tabooed sacred lake in Tibet...to even more quixotic
pursuits like examining the American hitchhiking experience in modern
times...These diverse exploits are united through a tone set by the author's lucid, creative, and economical prose. Jenkins provides clear insight into the physical, mental, and emotional conditions that should infuse bold ventures.
Review
Sports Illustrated These rich, well-rendered stories succeed because as Jenkins paddles against the current or rappels through a storm, his writer's eye is working all the while.
Synopsis
Adventure writer Mark Jenkins has journeyed around the world, crossing wild country, probing the hinterlands, getting arrested over a dozen times. He has made a life out of doing things the hard way.
The result is a book that dives headfirst into adventure and experience. Jenkins transports the reader with him as he climbs the ice-encrusted Italian Ridge of the Matterhorn, sea kayaks from battlefield to battlefield along the Turkish coast of Gallipoli, sneaks across Tibet to reach Buddhism's holiest lake, descends unexplored canyons in Australia, and traverses the war-torn Simen Mountains of northern Ethiopia.
If you've ever dreamed of escaping, lighting out for the unknown, read this book. In a world increasingly vicarious and secondhand, we all long to make decisions that matter, decisions of consequence. This is precisely what the outdoor life still requires. The Hard Way is a book about doing, not watching -- about leaping before you look.
About the Author
Mark Jenkins lives in Laramie, Wyoming, with his wife and two daughters. The adventure columnist for
Outside magazine, Jenkins
journeys to the most difficult and dangerous places on the planet every month. Formerly the investigative editor for Men's Health, Jenkins has also written for GQ, Playboy, Condé Nast Traveler, Backpacker, Reader's Digest, and The Washington Post.
Table of Contents
Contents Prologue
CROSSINGS What Goes Around
Between the Wars
Hitching
The Bear
Going to Hell
The Bike Messenger
Crossing to Safety
Endangered Species
ICONOCLASTS Pickles
In the Good Company of the Dead
Once a Phantom
Thin Ice
MOUNTAINS Somebody Else's Rum
Running Stairs
Tombstone White
Ego Trip
Breathless Heights
McKinley Redux
KIN Pulling Your Weight
The Snowcave
A Mere Flesh Wound
He Ain't Heavy
From the Mouths of Babes