We Aspired: The Last Innocent Americans - Softcover

Sinclair, Pete

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607815656 ISBN 13: 9781607815655

Publisher: University of Utah Press, 2017

Synopsis

Imbued with a sense of place, Pete Sinclair climbed mountains and rescued others trying the same. He thrived on the risky business of ascending sheer rock, of moving from one adrenaline-boosting moment to another. In this book he recounts his mountain-climbing and park ranger days from 1959 to 1970, a time some people call a golden era of climbing in America, a time when climbers knew one another and frequently gathered in Grand Teton National Park. There, Sinclair was the ranger in charge of mountain rescue, a job that, especially when it involved the North Face of Grand Teton, drew on all his young team’s climbing skills. Mixing adventure with personal reflection, Sinclair recounts expeditions taken with friends to scale mountains in Alaska, Mexico, and other parts of North America, as well as his work rescuing injured climbers in the Tetons. The book serves as a history of a past era in mountaineering as well as a meditation on what it all meant. Throughout the book, he challenges readers to consider their relationship with the western landscape. Originally published in 1993, We Aspired was a finalist for the Boardman-Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. The account of one famous rescue on the North Face of the Grand Teton is retold in The Grand Rescue, a film by independent Utah producer Jenny Wilson. 

About this title

About the Author

Pete Sinclair (1935–2015) was a professor of English at Evergreen State College in Washington. A recipient of the Department of Interior Valor Award, he was the ranger-in-charge of mountain rescue in Grand Teton National Park and founding chief guide of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides in the 1960s. 

From Publishers Weekly

Sinclair, a former climber and ranger at Grand Teton National Park in the 1960s and now a professor of English at Evergreen State College, has written a book mainly for mountaineers, a memoir of how some young men of the post-World War II generation found themselves in the mountains out West. His dramatic, well-told narrative encompasses a climb up Mt. McKinley in Alaska, a sometimes perilous trek to Mexico and many tales of life as a ranger, including some poignant and not always successful rescue efforts. As a Dartmouth '58 dropout influenced by political activist Allard Lowenstein, Sinclair went to Wyoming, where, after living as a ski bum, he embraced rescue work as a way to make his contribution to society and found many virtues in mountain-culture camaraderie. Sinclair ultimately left Wyoming for academia and parenthood; his son, without any push from his father, has also sought out the "sacred" mountains. Sinclair's subtitle seems a bit broad, but he suggests, with a measure of conviction, that his was a generation "that aspired to be heroes but ended up in the hero business." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Utah Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1607815656
• ISBN 13: 9781607815655
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208