Читать книгу Edge of the Map. The Mountain Life of Christine Boskoff онлайн

28 страница из 82

Challenged but still restless, Chris sought outside activities to battle the tedium of her nine-to-five routine. Her desire for something more than a fancy job was about to lead her down a new path.

EYES GLUED TO THE PAGE of a North Face catalog, Chris sensed something click. The climber in the photo was on a summit in Alaska. Below him a layer of wispy clouds hung as the sun set in golds and crimson. Making it to the top of Nordic Mountain in Wisconsin had been a thrill, but this . . . this seemed a thousand times more exciting.

Just enough to intrigue her, the image led Chris to a presentation at the Atlanta Climbing Club in early 1993. The speaker had recently returned from Argentina, where he’d climbed Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere. His slides showed a gradual ascent over the course of roughly twenty-one days. In the final shots, he kneeled on top, smiling. At 22,837 feet and lit by a sky of liquid blue, the alpinist looked elated.

Chris was fascinated. The speaker talked about the hardships, altitude sickness, the climbers who’d failed and those who’d arrived unprepared. “I’ve only been at this a few years, but the physical challenge is addictive.” Dressed in jeans and a crew-neck T-shirt, he was appealing in a rugged sort of way. And older. He looked to be in his forties. The fact that he was talking about something she was increasingly fascinated by was a bonus.