CHECK IT OUT

Extreme adventure can be a great test of personal mettle if you’re

willing to risk life and limb on the world’s treacherous trails. For more

cautious souls, tales about others’ exploits provide fine alternatives

for epic escape.

Some of the best adventure writing of the decade is in Adrenaline

Books edited by Clint Willis, on library shelves both in print and on

audiotape. Recently added to the collection is “Climb: Stories of

Survival from Rock, Snow and Ice,” an anthology with contributions by

such legendary mountaineers as Jim Wickwire and Hamish MacInnes. Included

are accounts about dicey ascents on peaks in the Himalayas, Alaska and

Africa, as well as closer to home in Yosemite and the Joshua Tree desert.

Adventure combines with autobiography in “Below Another Sky,” alpinist

Rick Ridgeway’s memoir about returning to Tibet’s Minya Konka with the

daughter of a fellow climber lost in an avalanche on the mountain 20

years earlier. The poignant account honors a lost friend and father,

while offering insight into what drives risk-takers to daunting

challenges.

An earlier disaster inspires “Fatal North,” the disturbing story of

the failed first U.S. mission to reach the North Pole. Best-selling

author Bruce Henderson provides riveting coverage of the harrowing

mission in this new volume, with details about a captain’s death,

dissension among sailors, a nationwide scandal and a government cover-up.

Also headed north in 1909 were Vic McDaniel and Ray Francisco, who

marked their high school graduation with a 1,000-mile bike tour from

Santa Rosa, Calif. to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.

McDaniel’s daughter Evelyn Gibb recalls their adventures in “Two Wheels

North,” a captivating account of the boys’ 54-day journey on dusty roads

-- and no roads -- along the West Coast.

Numerous offerings describe disasters at sea. Among the newest is

“Coming Back Alive,” Spike Walter’s suspenseful story of air-sea rescue

involving a leaky trawler caught in the Gulf of Alaska during a horrific

storm in 1998.

In the same year, another storm wreaked havoc at the Sydney to Hobart

competition in Australia, when the annual test of courage and skill

became the most ruinous race in modern yachting history. Read about the

boats and sailors decimated by hurricane winds and 80-foot-waves in Bruce

Knecht’s “The Proving Ground.”

If you prefer armchair adventure live, join a virtual trek to the

Peruvian Andes next Thursday, Aug. 23, in the comfort of the Central

Library. At 4 and 7 p.m., intrepid traveler Jim Wood will present slides

of his weeklong, 64-mile trek in July 2001. With 12 other hardy souls,

Wood got snowed in, summited a 16,000-foot pass and visited villages

rarely seen by outsiders.

Reserve free passage on this adventure by calling (949) 644-3072.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

Susie Lamb.