A life worth living is lived at the edges where it is wild At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild Adventures at the Edge of the Map Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you add up all his many expeditions hes spent over five years of his life sleeping in tents And most of that in small tents pitched in the worlds most remote regions. Its not a boast so much as an explanation. Whether at elevation or raising a family back at sea level those years taught him he writes to distinguish matters of consequence from matters of inconsequence. He leaves it to his readers though to do the final sort of which is which. Some of his travels made and remain news the first American ascent of K2 the first direct coasttocoast traverse of Borneo the first crossing on foot of a 300mile corner of Tibet so remote no outsider had ever seen it. Big as these trips were Rick keeps an eye out for the quiet surprises like the butterflies he encounters at 23000 feet on K2 or the furtive silhouettes of wildeared pheasants in Tibet. What really comes through best in Life Lived Wild though are his fellow travelers. Theres Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins best known for cofounding The North Face but better remembered for his conservation throughout South America. Some companions dont make the return journey. Rick treats them all with candor and straightforward tenderness. And through their commitments to protecting the wild places they shared he discovers his own. A master storyteller this longawaited memoir is the book end to Ridgeways impressive list of publications including Seven Summits Grand Central Publishing 1988 The Shadow of Kilmanjaro Holt 1999 and The Big Open National Geographic 2005.