Gavyne's "Minus 148 Book" Report

Gavyne Stich
Book Report

Minus 148°

Minus 148° is a book by Art Davidson and tells of him and other people in his group that climbed up McKinley in the winter. The group consisted of Art, Shiro, Gregg, Dave, Ray (Pirate), John, Farine, and George. The group suffers extreme hardships and relaxing peaceful moments when climbing.
When Art first wanted to go up McKinley, he knew he had to have a team to go up the mountain so he tried to gather as many strong people as he could. First, he started asking climbers he knew and thought would want go and they all declined after that Art thought of Gregg, his old friend, plus he may attract more people to join, Gregg agreed as long as Art could gather a good team. Over a year or so, Art gathered the rest of the group and they went to a lab that researches the strength at the beginning and end of the climb to see if they were fit to go on the expedition. Past a month or so, they started up McKinley with all their gear.
The gang started heading upward happily, stopping at each beautiful spot to let Art take a picture. When hiking through a crevasse field, everyone was un-roped and not scared, so any one could have fallen into the crevasses. When Art was close to camp, his arms were tired so he pulled his belly strap and started walking toward camp alone. All of a sudden he fell into a crevasse and his backpack saved him from dying. Later when one of the last two people approached everyone knew that Farine was gone and went to look for him. As they approached the crevasse, Art fell in, Art realizes it’s connected to the one he fell in and suddenly feels bad for not guarding the crevasse. When they pulled Farine’s body out he was dead therefore they took it to a plane and it sent him away with Pirate.
Once Pirate returned, the group hurried up the mountain. Several people got frostbitten when they built a cave. Only three people could go up and the others needed to stay just in case anything happens. There was a lot of discussion about who was going, and finally it was Art, Dave, and Pirate because they were the strongest. The next day they make it to the summit and when they decide to sleep outside instead of going to camp, they get caught in a storm of strong wind and almost die from dehydration and they finally make it out and back home.
Once getting home, they got harassed by the press and finally saw each other since the summit. After the invasion, they made it back to the research lab and it turns out they turned out to be worse then they started. They get back to their normal lives. All of them besides Pirate still live today.
The end of the book was relieving, like I was on the mountain myself and experiencing their adventure. I had a fun time reading this book and would suggest it to other people. This book is probably one of my favorites right now and I will probably read it again during 7th grade. If I had to choose between Tom Sawyer, this is definitely it.