Sam Lightner Jr.

As an extremely accomplished rock climber, Sam Lightner was always looking for the next summit. Coming across a black and white photo of a mysterious mountain somewhere in the heart of Borneo sent his NeedToConquer heart beating a little faster and his adventurous spirit into overdrive. Where, exactly, was this mountain and how soon could he scale it? The map was labeled "all elevations unknown." In the spring of 1999, following Major Tom Harrisson's book, The World Within as his bible, show more Lightner and a team of fellow climbers, camera men, porters, and unseen spirits set off into the jungle. A total of twenty-seven men follow Harrisson's footsteps to conquer mountain known as Batu Lawi.
What makes All Elevations Unknown different from other extreme sport memoirs is Lightner's historical look-back of what Tom Harrisson was going through fifty-four years earlier. Every other chapter is set in 1945 as Tom and his native tribe of Kelabit fight off the enemy Japanese at the end of World War II. For Harrisson, it was a struggle to keep the Kelabit from using their own inhumane war tactics of decapitation and poisoned darts. For Lightner in present day, sponsorship makes it a struggle to keep the photographers and reporters from interfering with, or even ruining, the climb. Both men, fifty-four years apart, experience a necessary inconvenience by collaborating with men with different motives.
As an aside: evading leeches sounded like a true nightmare until Lightner mentioned centipedes.... show less

The author tells the history of "The Equality State" from prehistoric times to today (2020) in about 250 pages. He writes like he's spinning a tale from the back end of a pickup truck. He mainly provides no documentation for what he writes as "the information in here can be found in multiple sources" (third unnumbered page in "A Note to the Reader").

As one might expect, trying to cover so much history is so little space means a lot of the "tale" needs to be glossed over or simply skipped show more altogether. Yet, the book is a fun read. It is likely to be especially interesting to those who have but little knowledge of Wyoming.

The book includes numerous photos and illustrations. I especially liked the numerous maps designed by Elyse Guarino, and found myself studying each one carefully as they helped to hone in on the "where" question.

The included bibliography is great and the index is A+.

My copy of the book is a gift, which I appreciate. Ask your local library to obtain a copy for your reading pleasure. show less