End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood

As a teenager, in a fit of rage toward her father, Jan pits herself against a steep rock face near their cottage. At the top, fired up by the victory, she sets her sights on the improbable dream of climbing mountains. By age twenty, she’s a nomadic climber with a magnetic attraction to misadventures and the wrong men.

Jan finally finds the love of her life, an affable Rockies climber. When he is killed in an avalanche in Alaska, a grieving Jan finds comfort in the arms of another extreme alpinist. Before long, they are married, with a baby on the way. While her husband works as a logger and climbs distant peaks, Jan tackles the traditional role of wife and mother. But soon, she pursues her own dream, one that pits her against her husband.

End of the Ropeis Jan's telling of heart-stopping adventures, from being rescued off El Capitan to leading a group of bumbling cadets across a glacier. It is her laughter-filled memoir of learning to climb, and of friendships with women in that masculine world. Most moving, this is the story of her struggle to make her own way in the mountains and in life. To lead, not follow.