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Writer and mountain climber David Roberts gave a talk titled "Writing about Adventure – Including Your Own" at Hamilton College Wednesday, November 8. Roberts has gone on 13 climbing expeditions in Alaska and the Yukon and has published 19 books based on his climbing experiences. During his talk he presented slides and descriptions of his expeditions which ranged from climbing Denali, Mt. Deborah and Mt. Huntington. 

Roberts began climbing when he was 17-years-old and continued to climb as an undergraduate at Harvard as a member of the Harvard Mountaineering Club. He has climbed several summits previously never attempted, and even since quitting serious expeditions continues to climb less challenging mountains and go backpacking on various terrains.

After presenting his slide show Mr. Roberts spoke in detail about his traumatic experience descending Mt. Huntington in 1965. About 12 hours after reaching the summit with his threee climbing partners, one of the climbers, Ed Bernd, fell to his death. In recalling this event Roberts read from his memoir On the Ridge between Life and Death about the tragedy and reflected on this event and its effects. He said that Ed's death had been the third climbing fatality that he had been involved with and stressed that the moral dimension of climbing is very important. Still feeling guilty for his friend's death, Roberts said that he has doubts about whether he should have ever been a mountain climber at all.

Yet Roberts told the audience that he enjoyed the writing career he created for himself after attaining a doctorate in creative writing and teaching at Hampshire College. Mr. Roberts told the audience that he wrote his first book in nine days during a school break at graduate school when he felt compelled to write on the events surrounding Mt. Huntington and has been writing ever since. He advised aspiring writers not to be discouraged by rejection and encouraged people to write on what they know. Roberts' lecture was sponsored by the Hamilton College Writing Program in its "Writers on Writing" Series and co-sponsored by the Hamilton Outing Club.

-- by Laura Oman '07

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