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Expedition to Mystery Mountain: Adventures of a Bushwhacking, Knicerbocker-wearing Woman
Susanna Oreskovic, author
What’s it like to be an intrepid explorer . . . and a woman?
Expedition to Mystery Mountain is a come-along adventure of a city-dwelling woman who, with five fellow climbers, re-enacts the 1926 exploits of fearless trailblazers and pioneering Canadian mountaineers Don and Phyllis Munday.
The team’s ambitious mission: to recreate the Mundays’ route to Mount Waddington, the highest peak of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, outfitted with vintage hobnail boots, fifty-pound wood-frame packs, and only antique ice axes for safety. Is the one woman in the crew prepared to endure the hordes of mosquitoes, the grizzly bears, the thickets of devil’s club, and the other dangers on the List of Doom?
The way forward is uncertain. Fear is not. Her mantra: “Just keep going.”
Far from civilization the gear and the team start falling apart, and the fate of the expedition hangs in the balance. At every turn, another stumbling block—yet her biggest obstacle may not be the impenetrable bush, the punishing weight of the pack frame, or her aching muscles. What is holding her back?
To push on, she’ll need to find inspiration in Phyllis Munday, a badass woman of courage, good humour, and old-fashioned grit. She’ll have to come to terms with her fear of not being good enough—even when the path ahead is only more arduous. She’ll be strong if she can remain centred, moment by moment, and take yet another step. She’ll be unstoppable if she can trust herself in the face of uncertainty and unleash her inner wild woman.