David Roberts

[highpilgrim]

Passes a giant. Great writer.

RIP, David Roberts

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/spor ... -dead.html

[lukePlumley]

He lived an adventure-filled life and fought hard in the last few years. His books are all so interesting to me, and I am sad there will be no more. I will be thinking of him while hiking in Cedar Mesa next month for sure!

[JChitwood]

I saw this yesterday agree a giant of the genre. I’ve been a fan ever since I first read The Mountain of My Fear. What a writer his editor once said he had the easiest job in the world because Roberts never missed a word. RIP Mr. Roberts.

[RobbS]

Passes a giant. Great writer.

RIP, David Roberts

My first David Roberts read was Moments of Doubt back in the 90s sometime. I didn't really become a fan until something like ten years later when I noticed it sitting in the bookcase and decided to read it again. After that, the mail carrier starting bringing copies of many other Roberts books including Escape From Lucania, Finding Everett Ruess, In Search of the Old Ones, Devils Gate and Escape Routes. New and different adventures awaited in every book and I started to appreciate the amount of research that went into some of these. For Roberts, research was usually a "boots on the ground" adventure of it's own and in some cases it became a part of the story. I think it's enviable that Roberts could live this kind life where each new book project became an adventure. It's sad to think that there will be no more David Roberts books. I do still have Escalante's Dream sitting on the "books to read" shelf though.

Fun Fact: David Roberts wrote The Mountain of My Fear during spring vacation while studying at Denver University in 1966. Nine chapters, nine days. http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP20/sideb ... -fear-1965

Also, in recent years Roberts kept a journal online at caringbridge dot org. He has about one entry per month, the most recent being 8/11/2021. https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davi ... ss/journal

[Presto]

Wow ... that is sad. Such a talented writer. I looked through my booklist and found I have eight of his books. RobbS, my first book was Moments of Doubt also (and, I too, enjoyed Escape From Lucania,The Early Climbs: Deborah & The Mountain of My Fear and Escape Routes). A couple of other treasures: On the Ridge Between Life and Death and True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna. He also co-authored some good ones with other people ... The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest with Conrad Anker and Mt. McKinley: The Conquest of Denali with the legendary Bradford Washburn.

RIP.

[Kiefer]

Couldn't agree more. Reading about his life in "On the ridge" growing up in Boulder ava later in the HMC and the Mt. Deborah attempt are sone of the best reads I've ever come across.
David Roberts was a true giant and inspiration to the community. We lost a great man.

Wow ... that is sad. Such a talented writer. I looked through my booklist and found I have eight of his books. RobbS, my first book was Moments of Doubt also (and, I too, enjoyed Escape From Lucania,The Early Climbs: Deborah & The Mountain of My Fear and Escape Routes). A couple of other treasures: On the Ridge Between Life and Death and True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent of Annapurna. He also co-authored some good ones with other people ... The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mount Everest with Conrad Anker and Mt. McKinley: The Conquest of Denali with the legendary Bradford Washburn.

RIP.

[SurfNTurf]

Nearly everything David Roberts wrote is gold. His mountaineering narratives are some of the most classic in the genre, and his later-in-life prowls through SE Utah are equally gripping. It's a bummer that he feels underappreciated; everyone lauds Krakauer, but Krakauer probably wouldn't even exist as we know him without Roberts. He was also the true writer behind Ed Viesturs' books.

If you're into outdoor literature and haven't read Roberts, I envy you. Pick any title and enjoy. My personal favorites are On the Ridge Between Life and Death, Moments of Doubt, and Lost World of the Old Ones. I'm thankful that I haven't read his latest release yet, The Bears Ears: A Human History of America's Most Endangered Wilderness. It arrived in the mail yesterday and I'll savor every page.

We lost Barry Lopez a few months ago, too. A rough year for the giants of adventure writing.

[Lville]

Thanks for the post and recommendations because I LOVED “finding Everett Ruess” and never followed up. Will grab some of the others.

[justiner]

Thanks for the post and recommendations because I LOVED “finding Everett Ruess” and never followed up. Will grab some of the others.

Oh was that him? I went to see him at Tattered Cover then with like 5 other people. Glad I gotta sorta meet him before he passed away.

[justiner]

This Chapter of On The Ridge is something I contemplate often when I'm out scramblin',

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/book ... death.html

[espressoself]

I picked up Deborah/The Mountain of My Fear a couple of months ago based on a recommendation in another thread, and the pair (particularly the latter) are some of my favorite pieces of literature I've ever read. I wrote down one of my favorite passages in The Mountain of My Fear; a reflection on why he climbed:

I need to believe, if only to explain climbing, that the dissatisfactions of life ultimately become its joys, that to resolve may be only to die, not to answer. Therefore the mountain must be there, real; it must, as much as anything I will ever have contact or combat with, exist outside myself. The mind may be wonderful, and even self-sufficient, but for the mountaineer it is not large enough by itself. It and the heart and the body, all that make up a man, require response, not only love and cooperation but hindrance and hate, not only friends but enemies. If a mountain, Huntington for instance, was not an enemy we could impute any malice to, did that make it a less formidable one? What can be more appalling than the sovereign power of nature directed by no mind, spirited by no will, indifferent, dwarfing? What vision of malignity can equal the darkness of that universe that is running down, of a cosmos that neither orders nor obeys man's yearnings, but blindly collapses toward a final motionlessness? Death, our only glimpse of theat entropic end, has its seductive fascination. Hence the risks of climbing stir and motivate us, just as other risks may someday stir some cosmic voyager.

I can't wait to read the rest of his work. Rest in Peace, David.

[Brent D]

Oh no! I read Alone on The Ice earlier this year and just started Escalante's Dream last week. Such an amazing collection and life!