Book Review: Escape from Lucania

Escape from Lucania: An Epic Struggle for Survival by David Roberts

This was a book I just grabbed off of the shelf because I tend to enjoy reading about real life events, and especially about struggles and accomplishments. Escape from Lucania follows two young men on a trip to the Arctic in order to conquer North America's tallest unclimbed mountain at the time. They had spent the previous year in the area developoing maps of the uncharted territory (it was the 1930's) and surveying the mountain. The seemed to have everything worked out, but the next summer was plaguedd with warm weather which prevented their pilot from making but one trip, dropping them off in the wilderness. From there, the boys struggled up the slopes of Lucania, leaving everything behind that they didn't need including one of their sleeping bags and a huge square cut out from the bottom of their tent. After summiting Lucania, their real struggle began as they found themselves unexpectedly short on food and 100 miles from the nearest help.

Like I said before, I really enjoy the true account type books, and this like any other really caught and held my attention. Everything seemed real and the author really covered his bases interviewing all types of people for the book including most importantly the two men themselves. I enjoyed worrying and struggling with them boys as they made their way out of the mountains. I give the book a rating of 2.5/3 Enjoy it.