The remarkable account of Hamilton Mack Laings grueling expedition to the summit of Mount Logan. Naturalist and cinematographer, Hamilton Mack Laing, marched into the Alaskan wilderness alongside weathered guides and hardened, experienced mountaineers. From Laings diaries, we learn how capturing the summit pits the daring adventurers in a struggle with nature, changing them irrevocably as they became part of the environment that tested them.
Trevor Marc Hughes is an historian, writer and filmmaker. He began exploring the history of British Columbia while riding his motorcycle across the province. He has produced and directed two documentary films and is currently working on a third documentary about his grandfather's younger days on the Fraser River. He lives in Vancouver, BC. www.trevormarchughes.ca
"What stands out in the book is the clever way Hughes juxtaposes the two solitudes of Laing, on one hand, languishing in the forested lower country interacting with birds and animals, and the mountaineers on the other, ensconced on rock and ice." - The BC Review
"With the help of both Laing’s and Lambart’s diaries, Hughes delivers two adventure stories for the price of one. Two men, a naturalist and a mountaineer, offer the reader a visceral experience of the North and its mighty landscapes." - Vancouver Sun
Hughes "writes with a strong sense of the epic that at times leaves one holding one’s breath with anticipation or fear, at times wanting to clap and cheer for the participants out loud, and at times smiling or even chuckling at an event that feels well-deserved, or shows the resourceful strategies used to circumvent a potential downfall or to amuse the person or persons involved." -Miramichi Reader
"Hughes deftly weaves two compelling stories." - BC BookWorld
"Hughes does much to rescue from obscurity the life and times of Hamilton Mack Laing, the exploratory naturalist who breathed science into the epic first ascent of Canada's highest peak." - Zac Robinson, chair, expeditions committee, Royal Canadian Geographical Society
"Mack was left alone in the remote wilderness, relying on his ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive. Many of the species he collected are now under threat from climate change. Essentially, Mack was an ecological historian." - Mack Laing Historical Society
