Customer Reviews

Enduring Patagonia

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Enduring Patagonia is an excellent read. Crouch is the real deal, and he gives the reader a full helping of what it's like to do battle in Patagonia: waiting for weather, climbing fast while the weather fuse burns, taking risks, dealing with committment, learning to love misery, and, sometimes, pure elation. It's all in here.

If you want to climb inside the mind of an elite Patagonia climber, buy this book.

I've long loved Gregory Crouch's writing in the mountaineering magazines and was excited to see a full-length book written by him. I was even more thrilled to discover how he brought the world of mountaineering alive in "Enduring Patagonia" -- the way he describes these otherworldly places is unimaginatively beautiful.

It's a literary book many readers will place among the classics of adventure literature, to be sure. And for those who read "Into Thin Air," it's the next step in breaking open the world of cutting edge alpinism. Now even my mother wants to read it!

Beautifully written and evocative--makes you feel you're on a frozen bivy ledge with the author. Suitable for savvy mountaineers and armchair adventurers alike. The author has made several impressive ascents yet is quite honest about his failings, dumb mistakes, weaknesses and fears. I liked his assertion there are no "important routes" in mountaineering except as they are important to the individual mountaineer--who cares if others know of your successes? A few minor complaints: near the end, the author waxes a little too flowery for me on the spiritual and mystical attributes of climbing--it's still only snow & rock; a couple of small grammatical mistakes ["none" often should be a singular pronoun...]; and some problems with parallels ["The depth and breadth of my Patagonian peregrinations are just that--wide and deep..."]. Without getting too maudlin or detailed, the author traces nicely his growth as an adult and alpinist, especially his Army years, and shows how his earlier years impacted his climbing. I had always been leery about trying to climb in Patagonia because the weather seemed to make it a poor bet but Crouch has stirred me to the point where I plan to give it a try, with modest expectations. His book suggests how the place itself, with all the wildness of nature, could be a suitable goal.

If you climb and have a deep-rooted passion for the emotions that climbing stirs in you then I would highly recommend this book. You don't have to be on the cutting edge of climbing to understand in your heart what Crouch talks about in Enduring Patagonia. Empathy, focus, inner-demons, harmony, determination, pain, self-realization and the laurels of success are the streams of conscious thought that are conveyed so beautifully in Crouch's book. If you climb you know that all these feeling come out in great strength throughout almost every climb. I've never been able to put into words all the emotions and the reason for ones passion of climbing but Crouch's book does a stellar job of wording our obsession with the sport and lifestyle.

Truly a book you can't put down. Greg has a tremendous ability to make you feel like he's with you in a fire lit hut telling only you the story while you're both kicking back a cold beer. This book bridges the gap between the romanticized view of mountaineering and the extraordinary effort and tough decisions it takes on a summit attempt. You'll laugh your self silly and feel the sting of the cold while pinned to a granite wall as Greg leads you through his experience.

Extremely well written and a book you will not want to put down.

Crouch does an excellent job of bringing the reader into the obsessive world of hard core mountaineers. His writing is exciting , crisp, and vivid. You feel his enthusiasm for his sport and can understand the sacrifices people like him make to climb the world's most challenging peaks. Anyone with an interest in adventure travel or outdoor sports will enjoy this book.

It's always good to read a mountaineering book that goes beyond the travelogue or that recites only overcoming the hardships. Gregory Crouch shows he has a knack for storytelling and a literary skill which makes this an enjoyable read. While the latter part of the story lacks the precission and insight of the first part, the narrative style still makes me hope this is not his only book.

As an aging mountaineer of far less skill and experience as Crouch, I found Crouch speaks to the inner psyche of those who find themselves obsessed by the affliction for high places.

Gregory Crouch is more than an adventure writer; he is a nature poet, chronicling his climbs in the Patagonian Andes--the near vertical faces of Cerro Torre, Fitzroy, Aguja Poincenot--fighting rock and ice, snow and wind, fear and fatigue, while conquering the otherworldly mountains straddling Chile and Argentina. Crouch's team of climbers was the first to complete a winter ascent of Cerro Torre's notorious west face in winter, a mind-bending feat considering how often climbs end in failure and sometimes death. His passion for climbing began as a cadet at West Point, where he scaled the Shawangunk Mountains by the Hudson River in New York, and continued long after he left the military following the first Gulf War. He worked construction jobs before becoming a full-time writer, saving every cent and going back to the Patagonian range again and again, comparing his quest to Captain Ahab's obsession with the big white whale in Moby Dick. Crouch's book is full of ripe metaphor and imagery: "Cracks and booms heard in the howl of storm are comprehensible to me, but not the mumbled conversations, barking dogs, ringing church bells, and the toneless organ growl that I hear...the asymphonic chorus that will pipe us into hell." The game is survival, and those who do are the unsung heroes of climbing as in war: "True toughness sits quietly, like the dull luster of a worn pair of combat boots or a battered ice axe."

I loved this book. I read it before I went to Patagonia, and Crouch really paints a great picture of the place, its weather and the rocks, ESPECIALLY after going there! He is a great storyteller and I really couldn't put the book down, he has a great voice and I can't wait to read any other books he comes out with.

Really enjoyed reading this book. The author does a wonderful job of bringing the drama and storms right into your vision. The book covers some of the most epic routes on Patagonia's high peaks and the list of charactors could not have been more real if they were made up.
The chapters of Gregs flatland journies to get to his climbs are enjoyable. There could have been some more photos but other than that a real good book about what it takes to climb and stay sane in some of the worst mountain weather on the planet.