Walk of Ages

Following in her father’s footsteps, Withanee Andersen begins the expedition of a lifetime when she and her comrades embark on a trek from Mt. Whitney to Death Valley, tracing the rugged path her father, Jim Andersen, traversed forty-three years earlier.

With hopes of being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, Jim led the first documented walk from the highest to lowest point in the contiguous United States­ in 1974.  He lived, albeit just barely, to tell the tale to his daughter, sparking a desire in Withanee to retrace his steps in his honor. In 2017, she took on the incredible task of recreating Jim’s legacy trek of 131 miles with the help of divine intervention, ice-cold beer, and her parents, who were following along as the support party.

Walk of Ages humorously relates the parallel journey of an epic adventure told from two perspectives–a daughter’s difficult quest, and a father who supports her, through it while recalling his own experiences from four decades earlier. Throughout this momentous odyssey, readers will realize how a once-in-a-generation adventure leads to life-changing transformation, and that the bond between father and daughter knows no bounds.