[Paddlewise] Foolishness, miscalculations and human mind (was: Wanted - Kayak Stories)

From: Ari Saarto <asaarto_at_elisanet.fi>
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 11:24:27 +0200
Hi,

I just read during a longish trip 'We Cannot Fail' by Geoff Powter  
(Robinson, London 2007; published also in US around 2006 by the  
Mountaineers books).

The back cover text boasts about 'the dark psychology of heroic  
adventure' and truly, Powter makes quite good profiles of more than  
10 (mostly) tragic adventurers.

Among others, included are well known Merriwether Lewis, John  
Franklin, Robert Falcon Scott and balloonist Solomon Andrie. The  
range of stories varies from North Pole to South Pole, from European  
Alps to Mt. Everest, from some ridiculous attempts to circumnavigate  
the globe by boat to extreme long distance solo flights in the 1930's.

It is a thought provoking read, though you might want to disagree  
with the writer sometimes. About twenty illustrations makes reading  
more entertaining, but I would have wanted to get even longer and  
more detailed descriptions and stories (only 245 pages).

Cheers,

Ari Saarto
- navigare necesse est -
tel. + 358 (0) 40 58 59 676
http://asaarto1.blogspot.com/



On 18. joulu 2007, at 07:39, Craig Jungers wrote:

> The water in the lake in front of my house is way too hard for  
> paddlling and
> I'm running out of old magazines to read. Even the Internet doesn't  
> have
> nearly enough. But I know that there are paddlewisers who live in  
> warmer
> climes who are happily spending their time puttering about in small  
> boats.
> So why doncha tell us about it? Those of us who live in the land of  
> hard
> (very hard!) waters are counting on you all to give us some  
> vicarious relief
> from the cold. I promise to do my part come April or May but unless  
> you all
> want accounts of criss-country skiing in the Cascades, I suggest  
> some of you
> warm-weather habitants get busy!!!
>
> :)
> Craig Jungers
> Moses Lake, WA
***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************
Received on Tue Dec 18 2007 - 01:24:39 PST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:28 PDT