REVIEWS & PRESS
BLURBS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Climbing mountains becomes a source of both joy and loss for Jan Redford–as she finds her own gutsy route through that other wilderness, of marriage and motherhood. Cheryl Strayed, move over: End of The Rope is a rambunctious, funny, heartstopping memoir that carries us along on an electric current of risk and courage."
–MARNI JACKSON, senior faculty, the Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program, Banff Centre, and author of The Mother Zone
“A hair-raising triumph—my heart raced on every page, wondering if Jan Redford would seize her lost courage or plummet to physical and psychological annihilation.”
–KATHLEEN WINTER, author of Lost in September and Boundless
"Jan Redford is a bad-ass. She is also a born storyteller, and this one–the mountains she has climbed, the men she has loved–and survived–is gritty, funny, tragic, and ultimately victorious. Women’s voices are a conspicuous rarity in the mountaineering world, and tobacco-chewing mother’s voices are even rarer; Redford’s is a bracing and refreshing corrective - intimate, affectionate, loud and clear."
–JOHN VAILLANT, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce
"Jan Redford is my new favourite feminist anti-heroine: a potty-mouthed, tobacco-chewing, take-no-shit mountain climber who is at once strong-minded and insecure, fierce and vulnerable, loveable and flawed. Redford’s voice pulsates with immediacy and vitality, and she writes her story with a bull’s eye precision and unflinching honesty. Inspiring, funny, heartbreaking, and bold, End of the Rope is a book about survival and courage, about letting go of old dreams and finding new ones. I couldn’t put it down."
–AYELET TSABARI, author of The Best Place on Earth
"Move over boys - I have a new favourite adventure writer! END OF THE ROPE tells the mountain story I've been longing to read. Surrounded by death, Jan Redford must learn to live. In a world dominated by powerful men, she fights for the courage and confidence to lead rather than follow. I love Redford's grit, her fallibility, her physicality, her honesty. I want to put this memoir into every mountain woman's hands, every mother's hands, and the hands of every woman struggling to take charge of her own future. A hearty welcome to a new voice that’s sometimes tough, sometimes vulnerable, but always brave."
–ANGIE ABDOU, author of The Bone Cage and In Case I Go
"Jan Redford shows us that there are many types of bravery required, not just in the wilderness, but in surviving day to day life. End of the Rope is at times funny, but always compassionate and courageous."
–TANIS RIDEOUT, author of Above All Things
"In this scrappy memoir of love, loss, and mountaineering, Jan Redford gracefully explores a familiar midlife quandary: how to balance safety with adventure."
–ADA CALHOUN, author of Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give
"End of the Rope is a riveting journey of surviving loss, finding love, and summoning the courage to keep climbing. Jan Redford takes us inside the male-dominated world of climbing, where missteps can mean death, and mental grit is as important as physical strength. A beautifully written and breathtakingly honest book."
–CAROL SHABEN, author of Into the Abyss
"Rowdy, raw, even raucous at times, End of the Rope is a heartbreakingly vulnerable memoir. Through her story, Jan Redford exposes contradictions within the climbing community that test the hearts and souls of the tribe she calls her own."
–BERNADETTE MCDONALD, author of Freedom Climbers
"Jan Redford’s debut is beautifully crafted, fierce and uncompromising. Her cathartic book pivots around the moment she learned that her boyfriend Dan Guthrie had perished in an avalanche. With a ‘take no prisoners’ style she recounts the freewheeling years leading up to her relationship with Dan, how his loss sent her life into a tail spin and how she finally found balance. Jan writes with blistering honesty; she is fearless in relating the conflicts of family life and mountaineering, a disastrously co-dependent marriage, and her struggles with her father, her ex husband and herself. End of the Rope is a compelling and often unsettling read."
–MARIA COFFEY, author of Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow
“End of the Rope is a rare thing, an at once thrilling and thoughtful book. Readers will make their way up perilous slopes and across daunting ridgelines. They will dangle from cliffs in their harnesses and carabineers. But at the end of this book about daring, about doing, about defining oneself in the face of the steepest challenges, readers will also summit with author Jan Redford, exhilarated and moved.”
—TIMOTHY TAYLOR, author of The Rule of Stephens and Stanley Park
REVIEWS
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"With a wonderful combination of adventure and introspection, outdoor writer Redford tells of a life lived on the fringes of society and in the heights of the Banff (sic) mountains in British Columbia.... As Redford reflects on the evolution of both her marriage and her professional life, her prose seamlessly moves from witty and gutsy to introspective and sad... Redford’s is a truly inspiring and honest account of what it means to be a strong woman who can reach new heights because she isn’t afraid to fall."
—Publishers Weekly, Reviewed on: 03/12/2018
Full article: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781640090309
"[W]orth the price of admission, are Redford's up-close encounters with the rock itself...Worthy for aspiring climbers."
–Kirkus, Reviewed on 03/20/2018
Full article: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jan-redford/end-of-the-rope/
"...Climbing also taught her life lessons. 'Climbing and the outdoor life in general taught me to tolerate extreme discomfort and fear,' Redford said. 'I pushed myself beyond what I thought were my limits, so I was able to keep expanding those limits. Sort of like a hermit crab. I kept trading my shell in for a bigger one. It made me pretty tough, on the outside, at any rate. It took a lot longer to feel tough and in control on the inside.
'Ultimately, it was lead climbing that taught me the life lessons I needed most – moving through fear, staying with the discomfort, committing, really knowing on a cellular level that no one could swoop in and save me because I was on the sharp end. At tough times in my life, when I thought I’d given up on myself, those skills kicked in, almost as thought they were a mind and muscle memory.'”
–COREY BULLOCK, Kimberly Bulletin, Reviewed on 04/04/2018
Full article: https://www.kimberleybulletin.com/community/paper-and-cup-to-host-book-signing-meet-and-greet-with-jan-redford/
"Tough, frank, ambitious, and prone to cursing, it’s not hard to see how she’s held her own with macho male climbers all these years.
But it’s not all boldness and bravado here. Redford is equally fearless in probing the painful parts of life: the vulnerability of love, the confusion of youth, the agony of loss. And she does with much poignancy.
All told, with its vivid storytelling, fascinating glimpse into the world of mountaineering, and insights into the healing power of wilderness, End of the Rope proves a promising debut. Not to mention an invaluable addition to the canon of chronicles by women climbers."
–TARA HENLEY, Vancouver Sun, Reviewed on 04/10/2018
Full article: http://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/review-end-of-the-rope-sheds-light-on-the-life-of-a-female-rock-climber
"This 400-page book is like reading through your best friend’s diary. It’s a captivating, compelling and heart-warming story about a remarkable woman sharing her innermost feelings. Many life lessons to be learned."
–LINDA POIGNANT, Nelson Star, Reviewed on 04/11/2018
Full article: https://www.nelsonstar.com/community/redfords-remarkable-journey/
"For the reader, the journey is alternately – at times simultaneously – entertaining, heart-wrenching, knee-slapping hilarious and gripping as a steep rock climb with thin, sloping holds.
Writing a memoir worth reading demands courage from the author to be unflinchingly honest about episodes that are potentially embarrassing, painful and deeply revealing. Redford succeeds, diving in the way she tackled learning to roll her kayak in rushing whitewater, or pushing herself far beyond her last piece of protection on an overhanging rock climb."
—LYNN MARTEL, Rocky Mountain Outlook, Canmore, Reviewed on 04/19/2018
Full article: http://www.rmoutlook.com/article/Climber-mother-author-presents-book-20180419
"The lesson of the book—it's not a spoiler—is that happiness doesn't come only from ditching the wrong guy and finally finding Mr. Right. It comes when she realizes that it is she who is responsible for her happiness and not for any man, her father, a husband or anyone else, to provide her."
–PAT JOHNSON, The Squamish Chief, Reviewed on 04/29/2018
Full article: http://www.squamishchief.com/community/we-are-all-responsible-for-our-own-happiness-message-of-jan-redford-s-book-1.23284582
"The book is a welcome addition to mountain literature, where women’s voices (and stories like lactating all over yourself in the woods while on the job) are still noticeably rare."
–JAYME MOYE, Outside, Reviewed on 05/08/2018
Full article: https://www.outsideonline.com/2302911/climbing-memoir-without-happy-ending
"In Redford's story, the outdoors is restorative, and a source of knowledge. The rock face reveals her weaknesses, her thought process, the changes in her body. In her first lead climb as a mother, a friend goads her to hurry up as the climb is *only* a 5.8 grade. 'I can die just as easily on 5.8 as 5.10!' She fires back.
The view from up there changes. Our kids change us."
–JANET MANLEY, Romper, Reviewed on 05/08/2018
Full article: https://www.romper.com/p/mothers-outdoors-end-of-the-rope-wild-places-after-baby-8954444
"Jan Redford often describes herself as afraid; or occasionally, in her words, “chicken sh*t.” In fact, she’s actually kind of a badass — at least, the story she tells in the page(s) of her debut memoir leads me to believe as much. That memoir is End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood, out from Counterpoint Press on May 8. End of the Rope tells the story of Redford’s journey from a young, world-traveling rock climber to a rural mother of two fiercely fighting for her right to an education. It’s a story filled with grit and loss, intensity and resilience, adventure and self-discovery, profound grief and immense wonder. And, yeah, you’ll love it."
–E. CE MILLER, Bustle, Reviewed on 05/08/2018
Full article: https://www.bustle.com/p/end-of-the-rope-by-jan-redford-is-much-more-than-a-book-about-rock-climbing-8863132
"Redford’s style is raw, insightful, and unflinchingly honest, and you will cheer for her as she forges her unconventional path through the world. Her passion for mountains comes through on every page: “the only thing that had seemed like my own was climbing,” she writes. End of the Rope is a book that beautifully captures the culture and landscape of climbing, includes the close‑knit group of people who are drawn to the challenge it represents. But this book is about more than mountains; it also tackles love, grief, failure, parenting, and the quest for self-fulfillment. It’s a gripping and memorable reading experience."
–ALIX OHLIN, Trek Magazine, Reviewed Spring 2018
Full article: https://trekmagazine.alumni.ubc.ca/2018/spring-2018/features/alix-ohlins-good-books/
–LYNN MARTEL, Gripped, Reviewed on 06/01/2018
Full article: https://www.pressreader.com/canada/gripped/20180601/282162176881558
"Ultimately, it's the journey Redford takes—first rebelling against her family and society's expectations, then tentatively learning to listen to and believe in herself and pursuing the potential she knows she has despite obstacles—that's appealing to anyone interested in a good story. Redford takes us through many years, relationships and plot twists with deft clarity and lyrical language, and always with a dose of humor."
–KATHERINE INDERMAUR, Alpinist, Reviewed on 07/25/2018
Full article: http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web18c/wfeature-book-end-of-the-rope
"With her subtitle, Mountains, Marriage and Motherhood, Jan Redford alerts us to the fact that End of the Rope merges two subjects–ferocity and domesticity."
-CHERIE THEISSEN, BC BookWorld, Reviewed Summer 2018 Vol. 32 No. 2
Full article: https://bcbooklook.com/latest-issue/
INTERVIEWS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nov. 6, 2023 –For the Love of Podcast with Angie Marie and Jeni Strembridge https://www.fortheloveofpod.com/episodes/janredford
May 1-14, 2023 –Writers Radio with Ingrid Rose https://writersradio.ca/podcasts/
Dec 5, 2020 –Bold Leaps podcast with Lisa Bagshaw. https://www.boldleaps.ca/post/jan-redford-from-mountains-to-memoir-overcoming-fear-and-achieving-mastery
July 10, 2018 –CBC Yukon Radio with Dave White
May 30, 2019 –the dyrt with Korrin Bishop https://thedyrt.com/magazine/lifestyle/jan-redford-interview/
May 10, 2018 –TheCommentary with Joseph Planta http://thecommentary.ca/ontheline/1602-jan-redford/
May 8, 2019 –Mountain Life with Cassidy Randall https://www.mountainlifemedia.ca/2019/05/bravery-takes-practice-facing-gear-in-the-culture-of-outdoor-adventure/
April 27, 2018 –Vancouver Sun http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/0423-coming-down-the-mountain-a-rock-climbers-life
April 12, 2018 –Roundhouse Radio 98.3 Janice and Cory Show http://cirh2.streamon.fm/listen-pl-15490
April 9, 2018 –CBC Radio The Homestretch with Doug Dirks http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/the-homestretch/segment/15537034
April 6, 2018 –CFAX Radio Victoria host Mark Brennae
April 5, 2018 –Whistler Pique Magazine https://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/squamish-author-releases-memoir-on-mountains-marriage-and-motherhood/Content?oid=7931126
April 4, 2018 –CTV’s Your Morning https://www.ctv.ca/YourMorning/Articles/April-2018/End-of-the-Rope
April 4, 2018 –Sirius XM Canada, Canada Now with Jeff Sammut
April 4, 2018 –CBC Yukon Radio with Dave White
April 1, 2018 –Squamish Chief http://www.squamishchief.com/community/mountains-marriage-and-motherhood-book-launch-1.23247063
March 31, 2018 –Macleans http://www.macleans.ca/society/jan-redford-end-of-the-rope/
BOOK LISTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
49th SHELF –Most Anticipated: Our 2018 Spring Nonfiction Preview, 01/22/2018
https://49thshelf.com/Blog/2018/01/22/Most-Anticipated-Our-2018-Spring-Nonfiction-Preview
PureWow –13 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in May, 04/30/2018
https://www.purewow.com/books/books-to-read-in-may-2018/slide14
BookRiot –8 Books to Read for Mother’s Day, 05/08/2018
https://bookriot.com/2018/05/08/great-books-on-motherhood/
Hello Giggles –Books coming out this week, 05/07/2018
https://hellogiggles.com/news/books-coming-out-this-week-puddin/
Bitchmedia –BitchReads: 19 Books Feminists Should Read In May, 05/02/2018
https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/bitchreads/may-2018-book-picks
Sierra –14 Ways to Say “I Love You, Mom-And Mother Earth, Too” Sierra’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide, 05/10/2018
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/14-ways-say-i-love-you-mom-and-mother-earth-too
BRIT + CO –3 Heartwarming Books About Extraordinary and Unconventional Moms, 05/13/2018
https://www.brit.co/books-unconventional-moms-mccauley-alam-redford/
32 Books and Gallery –Top Ten Biographies
http://www.32books.com/product-category/top-ten-biographies/
Outside –Online Summer Reading list, 06/01/2018
https://www.outsideonline.com/2313811/summer-reading-list
The Hamilton Spectator –Fierce Stories From Female Adventurers, 06/15/2018
https://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/8665011-fierce-stories-from-female-adventurers/
Bustle –4 Books to Read if you Love Cheryl Strayed, 08/25/2018
EXCERPTS, ESSAYS & MY BOOK LISTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rock and Ice –Glacier Crossing, Secret Doubts on St. Nicholas Peak, Rocky Mountains of Canada, Excerpt from new memoir End of the Rope, by Jan Redford, 05/07/2018
http://rockandice.com/climbing-news/glacier-crossing-secret-doubts/
Catapult –A Memoirist’s Terror & Insight: Writing My Ex-Husband on the Page, 05/09/2018
https://catapult.co/stories/a-memoirists-terror-insight-writing-my-ex-husband-on-the-page-
LITHUB –When Your Imposter Syndrome is Out of Control: A Reading List to Combat Self-Doubt 08/09/2018
https://lithub.com/when-your-imposter-syndrome-is-out-of-control/
Electric Lit –9 Books by Adventurous Women about the Great Outdoors
https://electricliterature.com/9-books-by-adventurous-women-about-the-great-outdoors-809f070a3c68
NOMINATIONS etc.
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Short-listed for 2020 International 3-Day Novel Contest
https://www.3daynovel.com/2021/04/14/2021-shortlist/
Category Finalist (Mountain Literature, Non-Fiction): 2018 Banff Mountain Book Competition
https://www.banffcentre.ca/banff-mountain-book-competition
First Place Winner, 2018 Shextreme Adventure Book Competition, Bristol, U.K.
VIDEOS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
