PMA prof’s new audiobook capitalizes on hair-raising adventure

Austin Bunn's mountain-climbing story doesn't end in death, but it was scary enough to inspire him to write one that does.

"DENALI," written by Bunn, associate professor of performing and media arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, will be released Jan. 23 as an Audible Original audiobook.

"One of my closest childhood friends is really into mountain climbing so he convinced me to climb Mount Whitney with him in California," said Bunn, adding that the 14,500-foot climb (the highest in the contiguous U.S.) involves deep snow, ice axes, crampons and altitude sickness. "At one point, near the summit, I got a splitting headache and told Josh I couldn't go any further."

Bunn sat down and passed out. When he woke up, Josh was gone.

Cue the whipping winds and foreboding music.

In Bunn's own story, Josh returned from his own failed summit attempt and they both made their way off the mountain. But the harrowing experience - and Bunn's own love of real-life disaster survival stories - inspired him to create the script for "DENALI," a twist-laden thriller set on one of the most extreme environments on earth, Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in the Americas.

Read the full story on The College of Arts & Sciences website.