Women Entrepreneurs Radio

Johanna Garton is a mother, proud Wisconsin girl, writer and cross country coach. In writing Edge of the Map, she interviewed more than 75 friends and family of Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler, including notable climbers such as Peter Habeler, Nazir Sabir, Willie Benegas, Phil Powers, Mark Gunlogson (current owner of Mountain Madness), Hector Ponce de Leon, Steve Swenson, and Conrad Anker. Conversant in Mandarin, Garton conducted several weeks of research and interviews near the site of Boskoff's death in China. Not a mountaineer herself, Garton was drawn to Boskoff's story for deeply personal reasons: hailing from the same small Midwestern hometown, and in fact, attending high school together, though they never met. Their paths seemed destined to intersect. When Boskoff went missing in 2006, Garton's mother, also a journalist, began a ten-year deep dive into Boskoff's story as well as a close friendship with Boskoff's mother. She devoted herself to this project until a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease m