Not Won in a Day: Climbing Canada's Highpoints [Paperback]

Jack Bennett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

This is the tale of Jack Bennett's extraordinary efforts to become the first person to climb all the high points in Canada's provinces and territories. Jack Bennett is a member of the American Alpine and Highpointers club.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jack Bennett is a civil engineer who has climbed all the high points of the United States as well as Canada. He also suffers from Crohn's Disease, making his incredible accomplishments that much more noteworthy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Rocky Mountain Books; First Edition edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0921102704
• ISBN-13: 978-0921102700
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,898,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jack Bennett is a lifelong runner, hiker, and mountain climber. He is a member of the Highpointers Club, a group of obsessive-complusive people who aspire to climb the highest point of land in all US states and other geographic territories. In 1990 Jack became the 12th person to climb the highest points of all 50 US Highpoints. In 1998 he became the 1st peron to climb all 13 Highpoints of Canada. Jack is a Guinness world record holder for this achievement, which has been repeated only once (by Jack's son Tom).
In 1999 Jack authored the book "Not Won In a Day, Climbing Canada's Highpoints," which is a combination adventure and guidebook about climbing the wild and challenging Highpoints of Canada.
In his professional life, Jack Bennett owns his own research & development company, J.E. Bennett Consultants, Inc., and has authored 34 issued US Patents, about 70 technical publications, as well as a few entries in the American Alpine Journal. He has been fortunate enough in his work to finance his real passion: hiking and climbing the beautiful and fantastic wild places of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking highpointing to the limit, September 14, 2001

By 

Pete Agren (Twin Cities, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Won in a Day: Climbing Canada's Highpoints (Paperback)

As a U.S. highpointer (my number is 14 as of 8/01), I wondered if anyone had tackled the Canadian highpoints yet and once I found Bennett's book, I got my answer.
For any highpointer who does U.S. spots like Iowa's Hawkeye Point or even Utah's King's Peak, the Canadian summits are typical highpointing trips, but to the extreme limit. Bennett gives a good chapter description of each summit attempt and includes pictures to let interested parties know what they are in store for. And frankly, none look to easy.

Among the Canadian highpoint adventures are a world-class mountaineering expedition (Mt. Logan in the Yukon), a 4-wheel mud-bogging drive through the Canadian shield (Saskatchewan), a orienteering nightmare in Nova Scotia, a canoeing portage trip through the backwoods of Ontario, an Arctic adventure at the top of the world (Nunavut) and a technical climbing test in some of the most remote country in North America (Mt. Nirvana in the Northwest Territories).

Bennett does attempt to give the reader some trail maps and directions to each summit but they are a bit confusing and not as precise as the directions in the Winger's U.S. Highpointing Handbook. Then again, Bennett must think no one is crazy enough to try and repeat his feat, especially after reading about his close calls in the book.
I ripped through this book in two days and was begging for more info afterwards. It is a highly addicting read and the reader will start to get the all-to-common 'highpointing itch' about half-way through th book.

A great book, I highly recommend it, and who knows, maybe we will be discussing it atop Mt. Fairweather someday.

Happy highpointing!

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome adventure!, September 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Not Won in a Day: Climbing Canada's Highpoints (Paperback)

Jack Bennett's journey to all of Canada's Highpoints makes for great adventure reading. If you're excited about what you've just read he has the beta about how to get you to each of the these places (bring your own mosquito netting). The book is an easy read, has outstanding photographs and maps, route diagrams and profiles of the actual climbing routes. The only thing missing from this book is the discomfort of wet feet and the itch of bug bites. A must adventure read. Go Jack!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Won In A Day, January 19, 2000

By 

Richard Daniels (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not Won in a Day: Climbing Canada's Highpoints (Paperback)

Great Book! I've always thought about doing some kind of project like Bennett's here in the states. His honest (and sometimes very dramatic) recounting of his climbs and the straightforward, detailed guide section seems to make an accomplishment like his just possible enough for us mere mortals.