Crisis in Juneau follows a novice rock climber who joins two pros on attempt to make the first ascent of a mountain face in southeastern Alaska. Their plan is to pack three weeks of food into sea kayaks and paddle seven days from Alaska’s capital of Juneau to the base of a mountain that rises six thousand feet out of the water. It’s the trip of a lifetime, but it culminates in a near-fatal disaster before they really get started.
While training for the trip, the author has a sense that something is wrong with his body, but he stubbornly ignores clues that point a serious malady and convinces his two climbing partners that he’ll be well soon. What he doesn’t know is that he is in the final stages of Addison’s disease, a rare autoimmune condition in which the body kills its own adrenal glands. The progression of the disease is slow and subtle. It can take years to fully manifest and often goes unnoticed and undiagnosed until an urgent medical crisis is triggered by stress. There is stress aplenty as the three prepare for the trip, and things come to a head after they have packed up their kayaks and paddled out to sea to climb their mountain.
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Joshua E. Smith, Author 