Spokane climber’s memoir picked up by international publisher

Acclaimed Spokane climber Chris Kopczynski’s self-published memoir “Into Thin Hair” will be republished and sold globally.

“I am still quite stunned,” Kopczynski said in an email. “This contract all happened rather quickly.”

The book will be published by Globe Pequot, a subsidiary of Rowman & Littlefield and distributed by Falcon Guides.

The new hardback version will be on the market in February  under the new name “Highest and Hardest: A mountain climber’s lifetime Odyssey to the top of the world.”

The book, which documents Kopczynski’s life in Spokane and exploits in some of the world’s harshest mountains, will get a hardcover printing. It will be sold through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, REI and the major outlets and bookstores.

The original self-published book will be available at Auntie’s Bookstore through the end of the summer, Kopczynski said.

The book was edited by former Spokesman-Review outdoors editor Rich Landers.

“I have a new dream,” Kopczynski said in an email. “The first books I read from cover to cover were ‘Annapurna’ by Maurice Herzog and ‘Borders of the Impossible’ by Lionel Terry, both French authors. My dream now is ‘Highest and Hardest’ will be read in the French language by a 14-year-old girl or boy and they will realize there is a love life in the mountains that awaits outside the streets of Paris.”