WILD ANIMUS is a novel set on the West Coast of North America, from Los Angeles through Portland and Seattle up to Fairbanks, Alaska, and the wilderness beyond. The text reads like a naturalist's impressions of climbing Mt. Rainier, the Cascades, Mt. McKinley, and ultimately Alaska's remote volcano, Mt. Wrangell. The vivid descriptions of the botany and weather found at these high altitudes are a breathtaking combination of fire and ice.

WILD ANIMUS was written, in part, during author Rich Shapero's 400-mile solo trek through treacherous mountain terrain. Set in the late 1960s and early '70s, it is an acid-tinged climb through some of the most forbidding territory on the planet, and ultimately asks, "Which is more precious, a person's life or his vision?" Today he is guest writing on my blog, I hope that you will add lots of comments:

Ransom Altman, the protagonist of my novel, WILD ANIMUS, is a mountain climber who's not satisfied merely to summit peaks. He's on a quest for a level of meaning and truth accessible only in the wildest corners of the globe, and ultimately, he ascends Alaska's Mt. Wrangell with a single-minded purpose: to reunite himself with what he imagines to be "the source of love," his god, whom he calls "Animus."

Ransom's quest encourages climbers to ponder, "What it is that drives me, often at great risk, toward the summit?" And, "As I climb, am I running away from something, or towards it?" What is it that drives you toward the summit?

I've made an excerpt from WILD ANIMUS available online. It's called "Confrontation on Mt. Wrangell" and presents a scene where the climbing party must decide whether to take a dangerous route to the summit or less risky route that means they won't be able to summit the mountain on this expedition. What would you do? Here's a link to the excerpt:

A Confrontation on Mount Wrangell
http://www.patronsaintpr.com/samples/animus/animusobd.htm

Rich Shapero