Excerpt of EDGE OF THE MAP by Johanna Garton
Voted a “must-read of 2020” by REI’s Uncommon Path Magazine, Johanna Garton’s Edge of the Map is the story of Christine Boskoff, one of the world’s top alpinists and a trailblazing record holder who overcame challenge after challenge… until she and her partner, renowned climber Charlie Fowler, disappeared. The story is equal parts climbing history, love story, riveting mystery and above all, an adventure story that fans of #1 National Bestseller Into Thin Air by Jon Krakuer.
When Boskoff went missing in 2006, Garton’s mother began a ten-year deep dive into Boskoff’s story as well as a close friendship with Boskoff’s mother. She devoted herself to the project until a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease made it clear that Johanna was meant to pick up where she left off and ensure Boskoff’s story was told. Johanna’s narrative traces the sharp twists and turns of Boskoff’s life, from her early years as a Lockheed engineer, through her first climbing successes, her purchase of Seattle-based Mountain Madness, and past personal tragedy.
EXCERPT
LIGHT MIXED WITH DUST POURED through a grimy window in the police station conference room. As more officers crammed inside, standing room became scarce. God, this is too much, thought Ted Callahan. What the hell do they think they’re going to see here?
It had taken more than twenty-four hours for the police to grant Callahan’s request to open the bags, and suddenly it was time. The Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) here in far western China initially acted as though his request to unlock Chris’s and Charlie’s duffels had been overstepping bounds. Now, it seemed every desk clerk and janitor in the building had packed into the small space, all waiting to see the bags reveal their secrets.
The buzz from the Chinese police officers collided with the tranquil scene just outside the station. The streets of Litang were home to Tibetan Buddhists, most of them dressed in traditional clothing of richly woven fabrics made from yak hair. Oblivious to the drama inside the station, the locals were focused instead on impending weather systems and the impact to their barley crops.
Two oversize duffels lay in the middle of the room, each secured with a lock. Callahan fiddled with each one, tugging to see if he could jimmy them open. No luck. He’d been operating on wisps of sleep and too much coffee since heading up the search-and-rescue operation a week ago. Or was it a search-and-recovery? The differences muddied his exhausted mind. Setting them aside felt like the only way to move forward.
Callahan had left his academic fellowship in Kyrgyzstan as soon as he’d been alerted to the disappearance of Chris Boskoff and Charlie Fowler by Mountain Madness, Chris’s Seattle-based guiding company. Having solid experience dealing with the Chinese and a grasp of the language, he was a good match to head the on-the-ground operation. Chris was a friend and Charlie was a climber he’d known and admired for years. The couple loved climbing more than anyone he knew.
At age thirty-two, Callahan was an accomplished mountaineer him- self who’d led trips for Mountain Madness and understood the draw of remote peaks in this part of the world. Both the terrain and the people in the area near the Tibetan border had captivated Charlie for decades, and now Chris shared his fascination. It was an area they’d returned to again and again.
This time, no plan had been left to track their whereabouts. No permits had been requested to help aid the massive hunt. In short, nobody knew where the hell they were. Christine, dammit woman, Callahan thought, please tell me you’ve left something in here to give us a clue where you’ve gone. “Can we get a bolt cutter in here?” he asked. The nearest PSB officer paused for a moment, stymied by Callahan’s Mandarin accent. He tripped over a colleague’s foot as he pushed out the door, heading for the police toolbox.
In the week since Callahan had arrived in China, he’d been mostly holed up in Chengdu, Chris and Charlie’s last confirmed location, following leads. It took a sizable reward to tease out the information needed to land him in this police station in the city of Litang, three days west of Chengdu on the Tibetan Plateau. The air was thin in this part of the country, altitude 12,900 feet.
The caravan leaving Chengdu a few days ago had included a CNN crew. Chris and Charlie’s disappearance had started to grab headlines in the United States. A trio of climbers on Oregon’s Mount Hood had vanished just weeks earlier, feeding the nightly news reports for several days. The Pacific Northwest drew climbers from around the United States, as there was no finer place in the country to prepare for attempting any of the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks. As the drama from the slopes in Oregon turned from a rescue of live climbers to a recovery of their bodies, the story unfolding in China stirred the public’s desire for a happy ending. A Christmas miracle. It was December 23, 2006.
The CNN crew was eager to join the search team as it headed west. But going west meant a gradual increase in elevation. Passing through Kangding at 8,399 feet and on to Litang, altitude sickness hit the journalists in waves, and by the second day, Callahan was shaking their hands as the beleaguered reporter and his cameraman descended to the oxygen-rich air of Chengdu.
“Sorry, man,” Callahan said as they crawled into their getaway vehicle. “I wish we had some better visuals for you guys, but that’s just not how things work in China.”
“Yeah, no worries,” the reporter mumbled. “Just call us if something transpires and we’ll come back up.”
BACK IN THE POLICE STATION, Callahan’s mobile phone rang as he waited for the tool he needed to open the bags. Checking the caller ID, he saw it was the CNN reporter, no doubt catching word of this development through a leak and upset that he was about to miss some important shots.
A smoky haze filled the room from the cigarettes hanging off the lips of the Chinese spectators. Litang hadn’t experienced anything this thrilling in years—certainly nothing involving Westerners. Officers—all men—wearing pale blue uniform shirts leaned against stark white walls. Each sported a standard-issue navy tie.
“Whose bags are these?” the dispatch officer asked as he joined the crowd inside the conference room.
“Some foreigners who came through here a few weeks ago,” his col- league replied, offering him a smoke.
“Are they stolen?”
“No, they left the bags with a driver and went to climb somewhere.” “They haven’t come back?”
“Not yet. This guy’s been trying to open the bags for twenty-four
hours, but got caught up in all the bullshit at the provincial level and finally made a fuss with the consulate.”
The dispatch officer sized up Callahan, needling his colleague for more details. “What is he? Italian? Swiss?”
Callahan smirked, nodded his head at the unsuspecting officer, and replied in Mandarin. “Neither. I’m American.” The embarrassed officer laughed as his friend shoved him.
Callahan was all muscle, with fair skin, blue eyes, and ginger-blond hair cropped close. He had the face of a schoolboy, but he’d been guiding with Mountain Madness for a few years since being hired by Chris. Never one to stay still for very long, he had traveled the world on various contract gigs, learning languages as he went.
Reaching down, Callahan ran his fingers over the duffel bags again. Yellow luggage tags hugged the straps of each one, imprinted with the name and city of their owners.
Charlie Fowler Norwood, Colorado
Christine Boskoff, Owner, Mountain Madness
Edge of the Map: The Mountain Life of Christine Boskoff
The Remarkable, Untold Story of a Pioneer in Mountaineering
Groundbreaking. World-class. Legendary. All words that have been used to describe Christine Boskoff, a pioneering high-altitude mountaineer and mountain guide, one of the first women to own and operate a major, international mountain guiding business. And yet, her story—that of a talented and driven young woman who dared to challenge herself to excel in a male-dominated sport—is largely unknown.
A remarkable life tragically cut short, Boskoff was at the top of the high- altitude world when she and her partner Charlie Fowler died in an avalanche on a remote mountain in 2006; at the time, she was the only living woman to summit six of the 8000-meter peaks. Charismatic, principled, and humble, Boskoff was also a deeply loved role model to her climbing partners and the Sherpa community.
Edge of the Map traces the sharp twists and turns in Boskoff’s life, from her early years as a Lockheed engineer, through her first successes in the climbing world, to her purchase of Seattle-based Mountain Madness after owner and climber Scott Fischer was killed in the 1996 Everest disaster. Her life was one of unerring forward progress—until personal tragedy struck. Edge of the Map follows Boskoff as she recovers from heartbreak and moves on to even bigger peaks, earning acclaim as a world-class mountaineer and finding love and an alpine partnership with legendary Colorado climber Charlie Fowler.
An uplifting and moving story, Edge of the Map is a poignant testament to one woman’s strength, determination, and boundless love for the mountains.
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
