The Wallowas

Part mountaineering adventure story and part spiritual memoir, The Wallowas recounts a young man's search for the challenges and the solace that wilderness offers. As a student, William Ashworth discovered the Wallowa Mountains in northeast Oregon and they became an obsession. His weekends and vacations were dedicated to exploring this rugged country - roughly the size of Los Angeles and home to 126 peaks, each over 8,000 feet high. In language vivid and precise, Ashworth describes attempts to ascend Eagle Cap, Pete's Point, Sacajaweja, and the Matterhorn. Climbing and camping in summer rain and winter blizzards, he faces the challenge of the Wallowa high country and the humility it teaches. The book tracks the author's coming of age in the wilderness - from a need to conquer mountains to an awareness of the redemptive qualities found in these wild places and the need to preserve the last of them.