Then he takes a wrong turn that leaves him alone to wander aimlessly for nine days in the empty mountain wilderness. Donn falls down an embankment that hides him from sight.

Unfortunately, a thick, fast-moving fog obscures the path. Henry cautions him against doing so and remains with Mr. Donn gets cold and decides to find his own way back to camp rather than wait for the rest. Henry and Donn run ahead and meet another climber, Charles Austin, minister with the Church of All Nations in New York City, NY. Katahdin, at 5268 feet the highest peak in the state of Maine, with his father, brothers Tom and Ryan, and guide Henry Condon. In this true story, Donn Fendler is a twelve-year-old boy in 1939. My only complaint (and this is just me) is that Donn is very religious and credits his survival to the Christian god, with quite a lot of this brief tale devoted to the semi-lucid experience and praise thereof. Donn seems to have made quite the career of telling this story over and over to young people, hopefully preventing some foolhardy youngster from disengaging from his or her party on some future trek. Donn's frightening adventure was suspenseful, and he and his ghostwriter did a good job of narrating from a 12-year-old's perspective.

It was interesting to read about Donn's experiences in the same vicinity, before the trails were half as well-marked as they are now. My boyfriend picked up this book after we'd had our own unfortunate incident summiting this peak after an act of similar stupidity (he was using carbide-tipped hiking sticks to brace himself, ended up falling over 20 feet and dislocating three fingers). He gets separated from his party (he admits to his own stupidity in wandering off) and spends the next 9 days surviving alone in the wilderness, covering a staggering amount of territory and beating almost impossible odds. In 1939, at the age of 12, Donn Fendler went on a hike with his dad and brothers to the top of Mt Katahdin, the highest point in Maine, and the second highest on the East Coast.

Lost on the mountain in maine