SNOWBLIND – Stories of Alpine Obsession

In this powerful debut story collection, veteran travel writer and climber
Daniel Arnold brings to life the men and women–complete with their scars and
dark corners–whose lives are defined by the mountains they climb.

The characters who populate Snowblind are obsessed with the jagged beauty and
driven by the physical risks of dangerous summits. Their climbs end not on
heights, but in the psychological aftermath, when their compulsions crash back
into reality.

Deep in Alaska, a fanatic soloist seeks her way back through the wilderness
when her pilot fails to pick her up after a triumphant climb. In a climbers›
hostel in Argentina, a young mountaineer tries to explain abandoning his
fallen partner in a blizzard on Aconcagua. On K2, an anarchist fails to fit in
on a modern Himalayan expedition–with disastrous results.

Tension fills Arnold’s stories, both from the finely crafted, sweaty-palmed
drama of the climbs he imagines, and also from the cracks that open in each of
his characters› psyches. Snowblind is a dose of old world adventure writing
made modern for a new generation fascinated by the mystique of climbing. For
both serious climbers and those who may never tie onto a rope the thrill of
these stories, complete with triumphs and tragedies, makes for an incredible
vicarious experience.