“What stands out in the book is the clever way Hughes juxtaposes the two solitudes of Laing, on one hand, languishing in the forested lower country interacting with birds and animals, and the mountaineers on the other, ensconced on rock and ice.” – The BC Review

“With the help of both Laing’s and Lambart’s diaries, Hughes delivers two adventure stories for the price of one. Two men, a naturalist and a mountaineer, offer the reader a visceral experience of the North and its mighty landscapes.” – Vancouver Sun

Hughes “writes with a strong sense of the epic that at times leaves one holding one’s breath with anticipation or fear, at times wanting to clap and cheer for the participants out loud, and at times smiling or even chuckling at an event that feels well-deserved, or shows the resourceful strategies used to circumvent a potential downfall or to amuse the person or persons involved.” –Miramichi Reader

“Hughes deftly weaves two compelling stories.” – BC BookWorld

“Hughes does much to rescue from obscurity the life and times of Hamilton Mack Laing, the exploratory naturalist who breathed science into the epic first ascent of Canada’s highest peak.” – Zac Robinson, chair, expeditions committee, Royal Canadian Geographical Society

“Mack was left alone in the remote wilderness, relying on his ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive. Many of the species he collected are now under threat from climate change. Essentially, Mack was an ecological historian.” – Mack Laing Historical Society

“Trevor Marc Hughes tracks the connection of Laing’s story with natural history and photography amid changes in ornithology and conservation in early-twentieth-century Canada.” – BC Studies