Adventure Athletes

Features 20 fast-paced biographies (four stories per book) of men and women who took up challenges that tested their endurance and spirit. Readers will be inspired by each athlete's courage and commitment as they go against harsh weather, rough seas, high altitudes, and most of all, their own inner doubts, in order to reach their potential.

 

In this book, Peter Croft survives a lightning storm at 19,000 feet, and speed-climbs two peaks in Yosemite; Martha Kennedy bikes through 210 miles of Alaskan ice and snow; David Horton breaks the record on the 2,144-mile Appalachian Trail; and Joan Benoit wins the first women’s Olympic marathon.

 

In this book, Peter Bird rows along across two oceans; Ken Crutchlow hitchhikes around the world twice before racing a sailboat to Alaska-on a bike; Steven Newman walks around the world, finding good people wherever he goes; and John Fairfax-the first person to row across the Atlantic alone-is pulled by a shark part of the way.

 

In this book, Rick Sylvester skies off El Capitán and parachutes to the Yosemite Valley floor-twice; Viisha Sedlak runs ultra-marathons, and then learns to speed-walk them faster; Galen Rowell takes photography to new heights as a climber; and Ruth Anderson pushes her limits in a day-long, 100-mile ultra-marathon in the Sierra mountains.

 

In this book, climber Mark Wellman falls and loses the use of his legs, but later he and Mike Corbett climb Yosemite’s El Capitán using only the strength of his arms; Tom Crawford runs from Death Valley to the highest peak in California-and back again; and Audrey Sutherland faces whales, wolves, and bears alone in her kayak in Alaska.

 

In this book, Sally Vantress bikes 21,000 miles in 19 months; Lynn Hill becomes a champion climber in Europe and performs stunts on American TV; Elaine Mariolle finishes last in a bike race across America, but sets a record the following year; and Sharon Wood climbs Mt. Everest, but the lack of oxygen almost takes her life.