Two Shadows: The inspirational story of one man's triumph over adversity Review

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(More customer reviews)Because I am a mountaineer, I have read other of Charlie Winger's books, so I knew his work would be well written, accurate and often funny. Nice reads. I wasn't prepared for "Two Shadows", but it was a Winger book so I bought it. Wow! I am also a psychologist and part of my work is with juveniles, detained at our facility while on their way to prison. As I read, I thought a lot about a youngster I worked with for a year and a half. He was incarcerated when he was 14--"doing stupid stuff"--and has now, at 18, left the Juvenile Detention Center to complete his sentence elsewhere. During the time I worked with him, he completed most of highschool, then finished soon after. He is now taking college courses.I have bought another copy of "Two Shadows" which I will send to him as soon as I get clearance from the Warden. It is exciting to read a true story like this, to know it is possible to climb from depths to heights! I hope in passing "Two Shadows" along I might be able to inspire a young man I came to know quite well. Thank you to the author, thank you for publishing this fine book!

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From the darkness of a six foot by eight foot cell in solitary confinement to the top of the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, this is the captivating story of one man's struggle to recover from a troubled past.This autobiographical book is filled with Charlie's adventures during 35 years of mountaineering, climbing rock & ice, and world travel. People who have met Charlie, attended one of his slideshows, or read his guidebooks will recognize his knack for telling stories. Some are hair-raising, some are a little crazy, and some will have you laughing out loud.Two Shadows is about more than climbing. It is the story of a boy who grew up in an atmosphere of neglect and abuse. He made numerous bad choices in life which resulted in his being sentenced to prison at age eighteen. While incarcerated, Winger turned his life around. He obtained his high school diploma, began taking college courses, and learned computer programming. Upon his release, he began a successful career in information technology.

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Minus 148 Degrees Review

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(More customer reviews)It is clear from the beginning of this book that trouble was looming on the horizon for these intrepid, but somewhat reckless, climbers. The loss early on of one of their comrades to a fall into a crevasse was predictable. How they could think of walking unroped, on a glacier that they knew was ridden with crevasses, is almost unbelievable. This was due, no doubt, to youthful inexperience and a lack of leadership necessary to set the parameters of what would be acceptable in terms of safety. These factors combined were to cost them dearly. It was not until near the end of their forty two day stay on the mountain, that they coalesced into a team.
Notwithstanding the sheer recklessness of their initial, bumbling efforts at a winter ascent of Mt. McKinley, the fact remains that they did achieve the first such summit, no mean feat any time of year, but almost inconceivable in the dead of winter. Coming off the summit, their thermometer recorded the temperature at a quite bone chilling minus fifty eight degrees.
Caught in a whiteout on their descent, however, the three summiteers were forced to dig a snow cave, where they were to spend endless days, in weather which saw temperatures plummet to an almost mind boggling minus one hundred and forty eight degrees with the wind chill factor, hence the name of the book. That they could survive this, is a testament to their fortitude.
In their snow cave, it was a relatively toasty minus thirty five below. That snow cave was the only thing that stood between them and certain death. With virtually no food, frost bitten, and suffering from disorientation due to the altitude, they waited out the storm and lived to tell the tale.
This gripping chronicle, of the forty two days they spent on the highest and coldest mountain in North America, is a classic in mountaineering literature and one of the best books on McKinley climbs. Those who love this genre will certainly enjoy this book. It is made all the more interesting by the author's new afterword, which gives a retrospective of what happened to all those who participated in the first winter ascent of Mt. McKinley.

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