Reviews

Review: Breaking Trail

Editorial Review - Kirkus Reviews

What was a nice Jewish girl from the Midwest doing atop the mighty mountain Denali? In 1970, Blum (Annapurna, 1980) climbed Denali, formerly known as Mt. McKinley, to show just how high a woman could go. She scrambled her way to the summit, leading a posse similarly bent on high adventure. At a time when women first broke through the glass ceiling at work, Blum penetrated altitude levels while leading assaults on Everest and Annapurna. (Her team's slogan was "A Woman's Place Is On Top�Annapurna.") The names of the places to which she went, from Bhrigupanth to Zanskar, Phalgam to the Vale of Kashmir, Kristwar to Trisul, would thrill Kipling. Danger on the mountains�crevasses, avalanches, snow, fog, ice, wind and cold�killed several of her fellow climbers along the way. For some, Blum's mountaineering jargon may be off putting. Of her first climb on Annapura she writes: "Attaching my jumar ascender to the yellow polypropylene fixed rope left by the others, I took a deep breath." Now sixty, a mom and a motivational speaker, Blum also provides glimpses of her childhood in a less than functional family and her day job in biochemistry, in which she attained a doctorate. The prose is occasionally problematic, but Blum's story could appeal equally to armchair alpinists and to veterans of women's lib campaigns. Blum succeeds passably in this autobiography of life and mountain climbing.

User reviews

Review: Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life

User Review - Sonya - Goodreads

Excellent book. While I've read a lot of mountain climbing books, I had never heard of Arlene Blum until a former boss told me of her, met her at the Cosmos club in Dupont circle. She was an amazing ... Read full review

Review: Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life

User Review - Ron - Goodreads

Blum charged ahead in many fronts of her life; from women's rights, mountaineering, to scientific research, she really pushed the envelope. While the mountaineering portions do not achieve the ... Read full review

Review: Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life

User Review - Ruth - Goodreads

Great adventure story of women breaking barriers in mountaineering. Read full review

Review: Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life

User Review - jackie - Goodreads

Arlene is a really amazing woman, and the sheer effort it took for her to do the stuff she did (as a biophysical chemist, as a woman, as a climber, as a mother) really doesn't seem to come across in ... Read full review

Review: Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life

User Review - Chung-yee - Goodreads

The book discusses her climbing experiences in the early days of the women's movement; more openly about how her childhood experiences influenced her leadership and management skills in the high ... Read full review

Review: Breaking Trail: A Climbing Life

User Review - Kristy McCaffrey - Goodreads

Arlene Blum tackled high-altitude mountaineering when women weren't doing such things. In her frustration at dealing with the male establishment and being pushed out of climbs simply because she was a ... Read full review