Cinch up your harness. In this sweeping, riveting, sometimes raucous, always brutally honest Alaskan epic, Mike Gordon-between the strenuous ups-and-downs of climbing the highest peak on each continent-fights the ghosts of his childhood, survives the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the bar business in the Last Frontier and struggles, often at long odds, to keep the woman he loves. If you've ever had moments of self-doubt, found yourself addicted to drugs, wondered how to overcome low self-esteem or whether you could do the seemingly impossible to overcome them all, by the end of this book you'll want to jump in the air and shout out loud. Learning the Ropes takes the reader on a wild ride from the Old South through Wild West Alaska by way of blatant racial discrimination, crazy motorcycle gangs, Russian revolution, dizzying heights and the underbelly of Spenard.