Journeys into Beauty, Risk and Wonder
Seven Dances Along the Wild Abyss is a book about managing extraordinary risk and humility in wild places. Told through seven interwoven journeys, it blends adventure, natural history, western landscape writing, environmental reflection, and remarkable photography.
185 pages, 130 images
“Few writers can describe both the physical demands of an expedition and the deeper emotional terrain beneath it. Burrows does both. His stories are gripping, reflective, and beautifully attuned to the fragile line between survival and wonder.”
— Michael Kennedy, American alpinist, photographer, and author
39 Hours
Victor Major’s 39-Hour Ski Traverse of Colorado’s Elk Range pushed the boundaries of human endurance. In this remarkable story, Victor and companions race against time and changing snow to ski seven towering 14,000-foot peaks across Colorado’s Elk Range—each descent characterized by its own flavor of risk. With only the barest essentials on their backs, they attempt a 43-mile journey, ascending more than 23,000 feet.
This is more than a record-breaking assault. It is a vivid exploration of the raw, unfiltered experience of moving swiftly through unforgiving geography where a single misstep can cascade into disaster.
Through stunning photography that captures both the beauty and the haunting solitude of the peaks, it becomes a narrative that draws readers deep into the emotion and effort of an extraordinary adventure.
Racing the Storms
Nika Meyer’s 486-mile journey across Colorado’s high country is a raw and stirring odyssey into nature’s fiercest moods.
Set against the backdrop of the historic 2021 Colorado monsoons, her path along the Colorado Divide Trail is framed by swelling storm clouds and the near-constant cracking of lightning above timberline.
On Colorado’s highest geography, Nika confronts more than physical exhaustion and solitude—she grapples with the elemental forces of wind, rain, and lightning, each tempest testing her resolve. The wild landscape pulses with living energy. Every step is a communion with a world as awe-inspiring as it is merciless.
Her voice, unshakeable and authentic, cuts through the storms, revealing her deep connection within nature. This journey is not just about setting the fastest known time—it is a testament to a determined woman moving through the raw, untethered power of the mountains.
Tenacity
Stories of relentless pursuit on Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak and one of the most remote mountains on Earth. In 1925, the first climbers embarked on an extraordinary journey, trekking over a thousand miles deep into the vast Yukon wilderness over two years to resolve the mountain’s complex challenges.
The largest edifice in the Saint Elias Mountains, Logan towers as the world’s largest non-volcanic mountain. The glaciated landscapes stretch endlessly, a breathtaking tableau of massive hanging seracs and endless snowfields.
The daunting Hummingbird Ridge is etched into this climbing history, an often fatal test of nerve and endurance. Equally perilous are the trials of the East Ridge, where unpredictable weather shifts from serene to violent storm in minutes.
Over ninety-five years, scores of expeditions have unfolded across this sprawling, icy wilderness—each bearing witness to resilience and the drive to unravel the mountain’s immense mysteries.
The End of the World
Jon Turk and Eric Boomer’s expedition on Ellesmere Island stands as one of the greatest modern Arctic sagas—a breathtaking tale of endurance and courage set at the edge of the world. Their journey, captured with striking photography and Jon’s poetic narrative, chronicles the only successful human-powered circumnavigation of the sixth-largest island on Earth.
Over 104 grueling days, they traversed 1,495 miles of relentless Arctic wilderness, where every mile tested them against nature’s frozen Arctic. In the story, Ellesmere Island reveals its savage face: polar bears tearing at their fragile tent in the dead of night, sea ice groaning and crushing beneath their weight, and a powerful walrus defending its territory.
The Arctic is as beautiful as it is brutal—a vast expanse of towering ice cliffs, permanent white horizons, and haunting silence. Their journey is a stirring modern epic etched into the raw and unforgiving heart of the North.
White Sirens Calling
White Sirens Calling delves into the magnetic and deadly allure of Colorado’s winter mountains when avalanche danger is great. Through intense narrative and stunning imagery, it reveals the paradox between deep snow and peril in Colorado's alpine landscapes and fickle snowpack.
At its core, the story is about the razor-edge decisions made amid the fragile Colorado snowpack—where a single misstep can unleash nature’s kinetic forces. The mountains call with haunting beauty, tempting adventurers with pristine snow, yet the plush powder fields demand knowledge, humility, and respect.
Avalanches shift the landscape in an instant, reminding all who venture there that survival depends on reading the ever-changing snow and managing risk in a realm where certainty is elusive.
The Opportunists
Colorado’s black bears emerge as powerful symbols in a story that reveals the fragile and shifting boundary between wild nature, climate change, and human intrusions into their historic landscapes. Against a backdrop of rapid climate change, these bears wander lands transformed by drought and relentless development, navigating a world where once-wild spaces are shrinking beneath the weight of human expansion.
The narrative explores the bears’ struggle to adapt—moving through fragmented habitats, searching for food and shelter as the climate warms and their ancient rhythms are upended.
Through the eyes of bears, the story uncovers the uneasy co-existence of human communities and the wilderness that surrounds them—a delicate dance marked by risk, resilience, and the urgent need to protect the wilderness that still breathes in the drought-stricken landscapes of the American West.
The Neanderthal Echo
The Neanderthal Echo journeys deep into the ancient bond between humans, animals, and the wild landscapes they share. It unveils how risk pulses through the very core of animal and human experience.
Told through the eyes of a multi-generational rancher and the elusive, powerful elk he pursues, the story weaves a timeless dance of predator and prey, tradition and survival. It captures the raw tension and quiet reverence that arise when modern life brushes against the primal forces echoing from humanity’s distant past.
Book a Presentation by the Author
Art Burrows discusses our history of managing risk through the lens of current adventurers.