Wild Adventures We Have Known: My Life with Willi Unsoeld

Jolene Unsoeld provides an intimate portrait of her life with famed American mountaineer Willi Unsoeld. Thirty-seven years in the making, Jolene’s book, together with Willi’s letters, writings, and diary entries, tells of their lives and adventures together climbing mountains and raising four children in the wilds of the Tetons and Nepal. Jolene recounts their childhoods, finding one another, early climbs, life in Nepal in the ‘60s during the fledgling years of the Peace Corps, Willi’s audacious climb of Everest’s West Ridge (with Tom Hornbein, 1963), Jolene’s turn toward being a citizen activist, the Nanda Devi expedition (1976) and the loss of their daughter, and, finally, Willi’s fateful climb of Mount Rainier (1979). As Willi matures we follow his growth from mountain climber to outdoor educator (Outward Bound), to wilderness philosopher (The Evergreen State College).

A climber in her own rite, Jolene was the first woman to ascend the complete North Face of the Grand Teton and has also climbed Kilimanjaro. On the political front her activism led to two terms in the Washington State Legislature, three terms in the US Congress, and a fellowship at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

The accompanying DVD has two videos - a 52-minute black/white presentation by Willi on the ‘Spriritual Value of Wilderness’ presented at the Colorado Outward Bound School in 1974 and a 38-minute color presentation by Jolene on ‘The Value of Risk’ presented at a NOLS/Outward Bound conference in 1995. A beautifully produced book with many photos. This book weighs almost five pounds.