LEARNING TO FLY

In the tradition of bestselling memoirs like WILD and EAT, PRAY, LOVE, a professional rock climber discovers new hope, love and joy in letting go.

Steph Davis is one of the most accomplished and acclaimed female rock climbers in the world, the first woman to have scaled peaks from Patagonia to Pakistan. But when her husband and climbing partner made a controversial ascent in a US National Park the ramifications were unexpected and life changing. Abandoned by their sponsors and their community, Steph found herself, a few days shy of her fifth wedding anniversary "in El Cap meadow before the person I’d considered the other half of myself for so many years, trembling and sobbing in sorrow and defeat as he repeated forcefully, with no room for doubt, that he didn’t want to deal with anything, including me." For the first time in twenty years she was suddenly without a partner, a career, a source of income and an identity. Desperate to change her mind-set Steph dedicated herself to overcoming her fear of falling, a climber’s worst nightmare. Little by little Steph turned falling into flying and found herself transformed. “The unique elements of the aerial world were as compelling as the mind-states it opened," and Steph then pushed herself further into basejumping, the most awe-inspiring and (yes) dangerous thing you can do with a parachute, all the way to Brento and the Eiger. This is a transcendent account of discovering a new world, an unexpected new chance at love, mastering human flight, and rediscovering herself in the process. Steph travels frequently and has presented in Italy, Britain, Poland, Slovakia, Canada. Her first book HIGH INFATUATION from Mountaineer's Press, was licensed to Italy and Poland.