Description

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In 1969 Joe Kelsey pitched a tent in the Wind River Mountains, declared it home, and has returned every summer since. A wilderness paradise, the range straddles the Continental Divide in northwestern Wyoming. Kelsey and a cadre of other young climbers ventured into the Winds to explore routes more obscure than those in the popular Teton Range to the west. Through tales of pitons and nuts, heroic climbers and Vulgarians, solitude and community, Kelsey captures the exploration of an enigmatic mountain range, the cultural evolution of climbing, the camaraderie of camp life, and the responsibility that comes with falling in love with a place. Feeling part of wild land, seeing ourselves reflected in it, gives us a glimpse of who we are. Kelsey's book shows how he found a true sense of self in one of North America's wildest places.

About the Author

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Joe Kelsey has spent more than 40 years climbing and wandering in the Wind River Mountains, and was an Exum mountain guide in the Tetons for 20 years. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "Joe Kelsey is the Wind River Mountain's Edward Abbey. With wry wit and understated eloquence, Kelsey describes his half century of exploring one of the most fabled ranges in the West. Kelsey is a climber, but his approach to mountains is aesthetic. He is as drawn to the sublime beauty of an alpine meadow as the heart-stopping challenge of a 1000-foot granite wall. He values friendships forged in the mountains more than a frightening ascent, and the company of his golden retrievers more than some bipedal animals. If you want to understand what mountains truly mean to humans, you cannot do better than A Place in Which to Search." - Mark Jenkins, contributing writer for National Geographic Magazine and the Writer-in-Residence at the University of Wyoming