Up the Down Volcano | a very good read!

Cotopaxi is one of the tallest mountains on earth, its top 19,347 feet above sea level, and Up the Down Volcano is Sloane Crosley's autobiographical account of her mountain climbing adventure on Cotopaxi. Any reader forearmed with this one essential fact (e.g., 19,347 feet elevation) would know from the first two sentences of the story that her adventure was not likely to end well.

I am told that Ecuador is graced with all four seasons in the course of a single day, and so I pack for none. Instead I stuff a bikini and a fleece vest into the pocket of negative space that appears as I zip my bag shut.

And so she flies off to Ecuador with just a carryon at the behest of a travel magazine that is sending her to write about Quito. She mentions to the hotel receptionist upon her arrival of "my interest in climbing Cotopaxi, a mountain I apparently can't be bothered to Google."

What follows is the improbable story of what happens when an ill-equipped and ill-prepared tourist hires a non-English speaking guide to climb to a peak nearly four miles above sea level. She has brought no boots, no clothing heavier than her fleece vest, and a ripped sleeping bag. She begins her assault on Cotopaxi just one day after arriving in Quito, itself 9,200 feet above the sea. It should surprise no one that Crosley is stricken with a serious case of altitude sickness the night before the ascent.

The book is an incredibly good read. Crosley is an engaging writer with a wonderfully witty sense of humor that she directs mostly at herself. While it's obvious that she lives to tell the story (this is an autobiography, after all), Crosley manages to keep the reader in suspense about just how everything will end. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my review copy, and it's well worth the $1.99 for the essay which is available as a Kindle single.

In my experience as a travel consultant, I have encountered two kinds of travelers. At one extreme of that spectrum is the meticulous planner who creates a spreadsheet detailing every detail of every day. At the other extreme, there are those travelers who revel in enforced spontaneity (Crosley), having planned practically nothing. While I shudder at the thought (I'm a planner, after all), I do recognize that spontaneous travelers often have the most memorable adventures. After all, life is about the journey, not the destination, and frequently the journey is most interesting once we get lost and have to discover a way back home.


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copyright (c) 2011 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
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