Baylin's Book Report — Minus 148 Degrees

Minus 148 Degrees by Art Davidson

Minus 148 Degrees is about a man who wants to explore new places, so he climbs Denali (Mt. McKinley) in the winter. After a few months, a group of eight comes together. Shiro Nieoshimae, Art Davidson, Jacques “Farine” Batkin, George Wichman, Dave Johnston, Gregg Blomberg, John Edwards, and Ray “Pirate” Genet — this is the fearless group of individuals. After they get checked up and get their supplies, they fly out on a plane that’s flown by Art’s good friend.

Since they go in a few flights, Art and Shiro comes last. Pirate escorts them to the camp. The next day is nice and sunny, but long. After a while, Art puts on his stomach strap which holds some weight of your back. Not much later he falls into a crevasse. His stomach strap barely holds him until he can maneuver out. He gets to the camp to two people heading toward the camp, only one got to the camp. They learn that the other person was looking down a crevasse calling for Farine, but there was no response. Farine is dead.

One person died on the first day, but they have to go on. The next day a blizzard started that last five days. Pirate went to Anchorage to tell the authorities about Farine’s death. During the storm, the rest of the group builds a complex of igloos they called an “iglooplex.” After making the iglooplex, they mostly eat and sleep. They go to climb some ice once Pirate returns. Everyone was tired except Pirate, who’s strong from his trip. It takes about two days to haul all their stuff to the next stop at 17,200 feet.

When they reach camp, Art is feeling delirious. This forces him to go back down and then come back up the next day. Since Art is by himself, he finds out that they aren’t there. He climbs by himself. As he gets to the top of some ice, he spots them coming out of the clouds. They go down to the camp as a group.

A few people want to go to make the final push to the summit, but they don’t have enough gear for another night. They choose Art, Pirate, and Dave to go. The next morning, the clouds clear, and they get to the summit at about 5:00 PM. Falling asleep around 10:00 PM, they wake to a raging wind storm. Their feet suffer major frost-bite in the wind storm that lasts eight days. About halfway through, dehydration starts to effect them.

Two days later, Pirate searches for some gas. He comes back in about a half an hour – successful. When the storm dies down, they climb all the way down to 14,400 feet. The next day, they get into a big talk with an airplane, but in the end, they are picked up by a helicopter. When they went return to Anchorage, everybody spends at least two weeks in the hospital.