Mountaineering Books

As a beginning, female mountaineer, battling some of the same addictions as Ms. Chisolm, I expected this book to be an inspiration. Instead, it was a great disappointment. Besides being POORLY written, I shudder to think of any other man or woman using Margo as a role model of recovery or mountaineering. After reading her book, I was actually disuaded for sometime from climbing as I saw her complete failure to find any balance in life. I saw no success or victory in her story - only confusion, isolation and self-centeredness.

I have NO idea why Margo wants to climb - she sounds utterly miserable on every voyage. Sounds more like her journey is to feed her ego, not her soul.

If you are looking for a book that will motivate and inspire, this is it. This book is filled with inspiration and the message that one can make changes and choices in their life. Margo shares from her heart and soul and takes us on a fabulous journey of triumph.

This book is much deeper than it appears to be at first. On the surface, the author seems to be a self absorbed whiner. However, when you really listen to her and understand her struggles and her accomplishments, you will not be able to put this book down. She takes you step by step to the summits with her. You can really feel her pain and courage in each page. I applaude her courage and I am very thankful that I read this book. It really sends a message about the inner strength women possess. Way to go, Margo!

Like all well edited books, Chisolm and Bruce begin with the hook; Chisholm is beset with a violent, deep, wracking cough on the slopes of Everest during her 1992 summit bid. We've got to read the whole book to find out if she made it; the book is worth the read.
For misogynistic, macho, morons, Chisolm lets us know what she felt being a paying client in adventure climbing, an activity predominately run and participated in by men.
For drug addicts, alcoholics, and fatsos, we learn much about Chisolm's recovery and its relationship to her climbing.
For those of us who wonder about the background of those who write climbing books, we learn that Chisholm was sexually abused by her maternal grandfather, was told she was lying about it by her mother, sought and failed to be the first woman to climb the 7 summits, and could squat lift 175 pounds. We even learn some about an affair she had.
Superhuman leaders of expeditions write most climbing books. Chisolm didn't start climbing until she was in her 40's. She doesn't write of harrowing escapes, dashing rescues, and first ascents. What she does is write everywoman's view of climbing the seven summits. She says a mantra while she climbs, she has committee meetings in her head, and she has written a remarkable and thoroughly enjoyable saga of striving to make her place in the world filled with glowing and vivid descriptions of the beauty and pain of the seven summits, the closeness of death and the reality of debilitating injury occurring within a few feet of where she stood.
We can learn much from this woman and, for those of us who will never make a bleeding edge ascent, see how we might achieve some portion of what she accomplished within 5 years of leaving addiction, obesity, and inactivity behind.

As a beginning, female mountaineer, battling some of the same addictions as Ms. Chisolm, I expected this book to be an inspiration. Instead, it was a great disappointment. Besides being POORLY written, I shudder to think of any other man or woman using Margo as a role model of recovery or mountaineering. After reading her book, I was actually disuaded for sometime from climbing as I saw her complete failure to find any balance in life. I saw no success or victory in her story - only confusion, isolation and self-centeredness.

I have NO idea why Margo wants to climb - she sounds utterly miserable on every voyage. Sounds more like her journey is to feed her ego, not her soul.

"Killing Dragons" is an engrossing series of portraits of men and mountains woven into a chronology of alpine exploration that spans 150 years. The bulk of the narrative focuses on two big, suggestive mountains - Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn - and their two principal suitors: de Saussure and Whymper. But there are delightful side roles for a whole throng of colourful characters such as Bourrit, Forbes, Tyndall, Ruskin, Stephen and Coolidge. Ultimately it's also a story about how surprisingly quickly and drastically man's relationship to nature can change: in barely two centuries the general mood regarding the mountain world switched from superstitious awe to scientific interest to exploratory zeal to nationalist competition to, ultimately, solipsistic thrill-seeking (which is still the dominant ethos today).

Fergus Fleming is a masterful storyteller with a penchant for tongue-in-cheeck humour, quirky details and the burlesque. In one or two cases it's even over the top, as when he inserts a footnote with a deadpan comment of Edward Whymper on the ubiquity of "crétins" (deformed, mentally handicapped people) and goitre sufferers in rural Alpine communities: "Let them be formed into regiments by themselves, brigaded together, and commanded by cretins. Think what esprit de corps they would have! Who could stand against them? Who would understand their tactics?" An example of a more successful gag comes when Fleming comments on the death of Coolidge who, after the demise of his beloved aunt Meta Brevoort, withdrew and became and quarrelsome, exasperatingly punctilious Alpine historian. Fleming: "An imp of perversity was loose in Grindelwald that season - either that or the Swiss possessed a keener sense of humour than they were normally credited with - for the great pedant was given an exquisitely apt send-off. The 'Echo of Grindelwald" misspelled his name in its official notice, the authorities put the wrong age on his headstone and the carver missed out the the 'u' in 'mountains'." The book is full of these kinds of hilarious observations. (Incidentally, Fleming himself may have something of Coolidge's pedantry as he is remarkably scrupulous about spelling of French and Germain toponyms throughout the book).

On the whole, Fleming does an admirable job in weaving the locales, the societal trends, the climbing epics, the individual characters and their relationships and rivalries into a rich tapestry. My only complaint is that this book refers only in passing to and omits a more extensive discussion on Albert Mummery, an important and colourful character who heralded a new era in mountaineering. His remarkable ascents on the great Alpine peaks (Zmutt ridge on the Matterhorn, amongst many others) and his fantastic daring to be the very first to attack a Himalayan 8.000 meter peak (already in 1895!) would have been a more fitting and logical conclusion to this very British epic than the unsavoury story of the German siege on the north face of the Eiger.

I am surprised to see only a 3-star rating average currently for this book. I thought it was an engrossing read for anyone with an interest in the history and development of alpinism in general and tourism in the Alps. I had recently read Trevor Braham's "When The Alps Cast Their Spell" which left me cold. Despite it winning the Boardman Tasker Prize I found it dense and dull. Starting into Fleming's Killing Dragons I was wondering why I was reading a book that covered so much of same ground, and expected to more or less skim through it, but I soon found myself hooked.

Braham focused on the players: each chapter is centered on one major figure from the era. Fleming instead works chronologically through the development of the key mountains and towns, and, although he does attach the narrative to each character for a time (especially to Whymper), he really follows the succession of challenges: Mount Blanc, the Matterhorn, the Meije, the Eiger Nordwand. This structure lets him write a book that maintains a sense of suspense and drama that is rare in non-fiction.

Fleming is not, as one reviewer states, a "great writer"; he is, in fact, a fairly dull, lazy one, given to repeating himself, relying on second-hand sources (i.e., he quotes other writers quoting Dumas, Dickens, etc.) rather than the originals, and he has a silly, reductive view of theism (i.e., one either believes in natural development OR God and dragons). I can't say I *enjoyed* reading this book all that much, but it did make me want to hunt down books on mountaineering by Leslie Stephen and Edward Whymper, among others. Fleming approaches his subject--the popularization of the Alps--not from a mountaineering or literary or scientific point of view, but rather from a social one. He is very much concerned about whether so and so was a snob or a gentleman, and that's fine, but prospective readers should be aware. I would much prefer a more technical discussion of climbing, but Ferguson doesn't seem all that well-suited for this. Having bashed this book pretty well, I have to admit I learned from it and am glad I read it. It beats reading Bill O'Reilly or being poked in the eye with a sharp stick.

British historian-author Fergus Fleming has recently been a prolific chronicler of the so-called "Golden Age of Exploration." Since 1999, he has published three relatively lengthy antholgy type works, including "Barrow's Boys," about British Polar and African exploration in the first half of the 19th Century, and his recent "Ninety Degrees North," about the numeorus attempts to conquer the North Pole.

"Killing Dragons," the second of the three, also has the least interesting topic. The polar and African expeditions were mammoth affairs that taxed those who participated in them to the limit, often killing or horribly maiming them. By contrast, being the first person to scale an Alp, as we know today not by far the most imposing of mountains, just doesn't rate as an achievement. Still, the book is interesting as an historical account of the beginnings of the sport of mountaineering.

Fleming is an excellent writer and a good stroyteller. Parts of "Killing Dragons" are quite thrilling, particularly his accounts of the conquest of the Matterhorn and the first ascent of Mount Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. Between such events, however, the story lags. The history of the founding of Britains Alpine Club and squabbles among its illustrious members, for example, isn't exactly the kind of stuff that takes your breath away.

Overall, "Killing Dragons" is better as a work of history than as a collection of adventure stories.

It was hard to decide whether to give this book four stars or five. The book isn't anywhere near to being a complete history of the conquest of the alps (con), but what is here is extremely well-written and interesting stuff which I could barely put down (pro) even though it's a pretty hefty 360 pages in all.

The first half of the book (176 pgs) is devoted to Mount Blanc, starting in prehistory, working up to its first ascent in 1786, and then continuing on up til the mid-nineteenth century. More than just the climbs themselves enters into the story. Fleming is as much concerned with the philosophical and cultural meaning of the exploits as with the exploits themselves. So he tries to give us a feel for their context in the wider scheme of things and what the people were like who were doing these things. The amount and variety of material which Fleming has researched and brought into the mix is what makes the reading so fascinating. There's everything from what the mountain villages were like to the scientific debate over why glaciers move.

Most of the second half of the book concerns itself with the eventual first ascent of the Matterhorn (1865) and the events surrounding it in the decade before. If Mount Blanc was all about ice, the Matterhorn is obviously all about rock. The author's obviously British perspective weighs heavily in here, which is where we get the most info on first ascents other than the two principals -- esp. if they were done by Whymper as warm-ups for the big prize.

Only the last twenty pages or so is devoted to the "modern" (post-Mummery) era, and the concentration so far as the detail is concerned is on the Eiger North Face.

So even if the coverage is much more limited than I would have preferred, Fleming is such an accomplished story-teller that I could recommend this to climbers and non-mountaineers alike.

The book is not true to its (sub)title. "What really happened after the legendary ascent and all the gossip" would be much closer to its contents.
As much as I was interested in the lives of members of the expedition, I had to force myself to go through clumsy, over-gallicized language and juicy details, unrelated to the subject. Why, pray, should one read about somebody's breasts being looked at after a car accident?

My advice is to go through the bibliography at the end, and to follow writings of the expedition members.

"Annapurna" by Maurice Herzog, is the best-selling mountaineering book ever written. The feat of being the first man to climb an 8,000-meter mountain is a matter of great pride to France and to all the people of France. Now what if the story was not true? What if Mr. Herzog's tale was full of lies and deceits? What if you wrote a book exposing these falsities and set the record straight? If that is what you are expecting, you bought the wrong book.

Mr. Roberts, in this slim book, definitively shows that:

1. Maurice Herzog was a fine climber, an idealist, a leader of men, and a gracious individual who was very partial to publicity and glory.

2. Louis Lachenal, who summitted with Mr. Herzog, did not get his share of the credit.

3. The profits from "Annapurna" went to Club Alpin François. None of the team members, including Mr. Herzog, received any monetary benefits from the book's publication.

4. Fellow members Lionel Terray and Gaston Rebuffat were absolutely indispensable to the success of the climb. Their bravery and generosity were extraordinary.

Other reviewers have mentioned that one must read "Annapurna" before reading this book. I did so, and found it highly readable, spirited and Mr. Herzog's enthusiasm shows through every page. I thought a lot of the book was taken up by just finding a route to the mountain, but all in all, an interesting read. Most of the points Mr. Roberts makes are implied in "Annapurna." Though there is no denying Louis Lachenal is the forgotten man.

Mr. Roberts makes a large point of how all team members were forbidden by contract to write a book about the expedition for five years. These rights were given solely to Maurice Herzog. Such a contract is common to this day for large sponsored expeditions. The only reason we have had such a plethora of books starting with "Into Thin Air" about the 1996 Everest expedition is because there were no corporate or government sponsors for that trip.

The book leaves a bad taste. It smacks of profiteering by unfairly dragging down Maurice Herzog who does not deserve it. Not recommended.

True Summit is an amazing book, both as a climbing book and as a work of historical scholarship. It exposes a web of dishonesty surrounding the classic account of the first ascent of Annapurna. Some scenes are provocative of outrage, as when Roberts describes the editorial notes -- "Wrong", "This must be changed" -- made by Herzog and Devies on Lachenal's diary. Throughout, Roberts intersperses scenes from his own mountaineering career, which add immediacy and human interest. One nitpick I had was that, as a writer of history, Roberts should really have given a definitive list of sources and referenced his quotes. More importantly, I felt that he never really sums up his arguments. Why was Herzog's Annapurna the whitewashed version that it apparently was? Were the reasons nationalistic, class (amateur versus guide), personal? What can these events tell us about mountaineering as a whole? These are questions which Roberts does not really address. Still, this is a fascinating book and I certainly recommend it.

I am not a climber and I enjoyed this book. The story that is shared is about human faults that can be applied to a variety of experiences, they are not limited to events on the world's great mountains. I was also drawn to the book, as it was a discussion of the first climbers to summit the mountain, and a climber on the fatal Everest 1996 died on the same mountain, Annapurna.

Mr. David Roberts did a nice job of bringing the reader along and sharing the climb and the distorted history that followed. More importantly he helped to reinforce what appears to be the truth about the climb, and to apportion credit as it should have been done so many decades ago.

I have read several accounts of the 1996 Everest expedition that caused so much loss of life, and to my surprise so much finger pointing by those who survived the ordeal. Many memories seemed to be influenced by the mental strain the mountain causes in climbers at the highest altitudes, but some seemed to persist even when photographs contradicted a given Author's statement. The climbers in 1996 had experienced guides and protective clothing that the first climbers on Annapurna would have thought to be the creation of science fiction. So, as Mr. Roberts began his story it seemed to be a case of memories created when badly injured bodies, and oxygen-deprived minds had left gaps. Even on the miserable trek back, people using morphine and suffering amputations, and dozens of other tortures recounted much of the originally published story.

Just as human nature was able to overcome hideous physical events, it too was able to distort the record for the benefit of one man at the expense of others who climbed with him, attained the summit with him, and saved his life. The beneficiary of the distortions was alive and interviewed for this book, and it was those interviews, combined with the evidence proving the true story that made this correcting of the historical record so important.

Mr. Maurice Herzog clearly intended for the historical outcome he contrived, and that nearly became the permanent record, to be the only record. From the oath he administered to his "teammates" to his continuing denial of the facts, and his refusal to allow access to records that further document the truth, Mr. Herzog took what was a group success that could have been nothing other than positive, and distorted it into a personal fantasy that provided him a lifetime of security which he had no more right to than the other men he climbed with. He would not allow the Author to print a picture of the other man who made the top with him, how vain, petty, and pathetic.

It would be convenient to say an old man's memory is faulty, but as he demonstrated himself, Mr. Herzog may indeed be advanced in years, but he is what he was, a pathetic self promoter that fictionalized an event that was extraordinary, it needed no embellishment, and the triumph certainly did not need to be the domain of one vain individual.

I was pointed toward True Summit by a friend who previously loaned me his copy of Annapurna. Although Herzog made the occasional gracious nod to the contributions of his teammates in Annapurna, overall that account struck me as flat and highly impersonal, almost third-person (even though it was autobiographical!). I found Herzog's raptures on the summit more bizarre than uplifting.

True Summit added a whole new richness to the Annapurna story. To me, this book was not so much a "debunking" of Herzog's account, as much as filling out the missing dimension. Here, the climbers become real people with individual passions, foibles, and remarkable skills. Clearly Herzog's version diminished the accomplishments of his teammates, but might we say that the end (national pride and financial support for future expeditions) at least partially justified the means (a highly idealized account of the climb -- essentially a propaganda tool)? I particularly was fascinated by the differences between Herzog's initial rendition of the climb and his later "spiritual" retelling -- and both of those stories contrasted against the diaries and conversations of Lachenal, Terray, and Rebuffat. If one man (Herzog) could convince himself of a new version of "truth" -- even in the face of HIS OWN written account! -- then why should we be surprised that the four eyewitnesses have different stories?

Roberts' overlay of his own climbing history onto the Annapurna story sometimes struck me as self-congratulatory while I read the book. Would this have been as strong a book without Roberts' own story? Maybe so, but I think what he's trying to say is that Herzog was both a great man and a small man during the Annapurna climb... and so were the others. To worship any one of the Annapurna climbers (as Roberts did, one after another) is perhaps to blind ourselves to our own strengths and weaknesses.

I think the best way to sum up is to say that Herzog's Annapurna was a good story, but True Summit really made me think about teamwork, leadership, and the nature of the "truth" that we tell ourselves and the world.

Very good comprehensive guide. As with any climbing guidebook it is difficult to tell exactly the route you are supposed to take just by the description, but it is a good effort with diagrams which do help. Interesting bits of history keep it from being boring.
-Deborah Steinberg

Porcella and Burns do an amazing job on describing CA Fourteeners. I don't think I've ever seen a climbing guide of this caliber within the last 10 years. Very insightful historical information and great descriptions. A Must-Buy!

After moving to CA from CO, and having used Colorado 14er guidebooks by Dawson and Roach, I was disappointed by this book. While there are many fine photographs, wonderful climbing history of the peaks, a slew of routes, and many routes superimposed on photographs, there were many elements that I find essential, that were missing. Topographic maps of the areas in question (with routes drawn on them), round trip distance information, elevation gain, and an estimated (conservative) completion time are essential pieces of information when planning a trip, and are not included here. While the difficulties of the various routes are described well, these other descriptors would make the book twice as good as it is now. Dawson's format, at the beginning of each route description, listing the aforementioned deficiencies (with the exception of the maps) is excellent. From the guidebooks I've looked at though, this is the best available.

Steve Porcella and Cameron Burns spent at least two summers collecting information from historical figures while putting up new
routes to all fifteen of the >14K foot peaks in California. This book is chockfull of history gathered directly from some of the early
climbers of these Sierra peaks. Many of the approaches to these peaks are arrived at by hiking (which is half the fun when in the
Sierras). As both authors are world class climbers and besides supplying detailed maps and routes traced onto photos of the peaks,
they have included many B&W photos of such points of interest as approach scenery, actual routes, historical contributors, as well
as many photos of themselves climbing the routes. Thoroughly enjoyable, this book is as interesting for the armchair climber as
for individuals wishing to expand their climbing horizons by exploring these magnificent mountains in California.

Porcella and Burn's book is really the only book about climbing California 14'ers. It's a great starting point for climbing in the state with extensive historical sections and nearly every available route up each of the 14'ers in the state. In other words, it will get you pointed in the right direction and to the trailhead to do the climb.

Unfortunately, the book is sorely lacking in route description details. The authors say to use both the pictures and descriptions of the routes to make your way up the mountain, but there are cases of descriptions without pictures. The book is most dangerous for beginning to intermediate climbers for its lack of approximate times to each location degree of difficulty, and lack of attention to detail on the "lesser" routes.

Take Mt. Tyndall's Northwest Ridge. It takes a strong hiker about 8 hours just to reach the base. The description describes the route as "easy" and up a twisting rocky trail. In fact, the trail doesn't exist and most of the climb up this ridge requires negotiating large, unstable boulders. The authors do admit the summit ridge is exposed, but do not mention there are some class 3 moves at this point. Without approximate times to the summit there is no way of knowing how long or how difficult the climb is. Furthermore, there is only a description of the climb and not a clear picture of the route. I actually told friends that climbing Mt. Illimani (6400 meters), which required some technical ice climbing, and 4 days of climbing was easier than climbing Mt. Tyndall (approximately 18 hours).

Lack of details are also evident in their poor description of the West Face route of Mt. Williamson. There is no mention of good spots to camp after reaching Shepherds pass. Williamson bowl requires fairly strenuous hiking since it is largely boulder field between several moraines. Porcella and co., describe crossing this as "entering the Williamson bowl from the north," which, judging from the topo quad and this description, makes it sound like an easy walk. The description fails to describe the route correctly, with the description sounding like you continue up the mountain when the picture shows a turn to the south. Finally the authors chose to take a picture of the climb from an angle that most climbers would not see from the southern approach.

Porcella and Burn's rating system often seems haphazard. One climb on Mt. Shasta was rated as Class 3-4, but I found this climb to be far easier than the Class 2 climbing on Mt. Tyndall.

There is a lot to cover here, but the easier routes certainly could use more description and approximate times. Yes mountaineering is dangerous, difficult, and strenuous, but lack of detail is not an excuse for the "c'est la vie" attitude Porcella and Burns use for their descriptions. In fact more description would help climbers be more prepared for the routes they choose.

In 1939, an American climbing expedition came achingly close to summiting then-unclimbed K2, the world's second highest peak, only to lose four members during the descent. The expedition's failure had multiple causes. In 1992's "K2: The 1939 Tragedy", Andrew Kaufman and William Putnam put together the evidence, including the newly available diary of one of the key climbers, to try to lay to rest the resulting controversies.

The 1939 Ameican K2 Expedition was dogged by poor fortune almost from the start. Expedition leader Fritz Wiessner chose a large and capable team, only to have the best climbers drop out at the last minute. Upon reaching remote K2, both climbers and sherpas experienced injuries and illness. Bad weather delayed the team's advance and dampened morale on a rugged and even terrifying route that was probably beyound the climbing ability of all but Wiessner himself. The relentless Wiessner drove himself and a Sherpa climbing partner to less than 800 vertical feet from the summit, while the team fell apart without him in the lower camps. On the descent, one member was left behind at a high camp. He and a rescue party of three sherpas never returned. Acrimony among the team members lasted for years afterward.

Kaufman and Putnam's indepth examination of the expedition includes the diary of Jack Durrance, who did yeoman work in pushing the expedition up the mountain despite attitude sickness and poor gear, but who was later blamed by Wiessner for the failures. Kaufman and Putnam argue that Wiessner's team was inadequate to the task, and Wiessner himself took on too many responsibilities. Kaufman and Putnam further reasonably suggest that the effect of prolonged stay and supreme effort at high altitude may have affected Wiessner's judgement. Durrance is shown to have behaved responsibly and followed the guidance he was given. The deaths of four climbers becomes in this narrative the result of a chain of events involving actions by a number of people.

The book has its best moments in describing the exciting story of the climb itself. The prolonged discussion of the expedition's failure offers many useful learning points but tends to be repetitive. The authors spent overly much time speculating about a number of matters, including the relationships between certain key players, which at this remove of time are probably impossible to resolve.

"K2: The 1939 Tragedy" is highly recommended both as a lesson in expedition dynamics and as a cautionary tale of why K2 is such a deadly mountain to climb.

This book uses the Diary of Jack Dorrance as the principle (and only) truth. The amazing thing is this diary was NOT released to the public until 1989, just after Fritz Wiessner passed away in 1988. Coincidence? Or assurance that Jack's diary wouldn't be challenged?

This book tries to pass the blame from Dorrance to others, including Fritz for the tragedy, based solely on the diary. The authors state that the Diary showed that Dorrance was sane of mind in those critical days on Everest, yet how do the authors know this was indeed written on Everest and not written at some later date by Dorrance to defend himself? Yes handwriting analysis does show that Dorrance wrote it, but WHEN did he write it? Where's the proof to that?

The authors wave off the note that Fritz says he received from Dorrance based on the fact that no one else says they saw the note. (Which Fritz says he turned in to the American Alpine Club and never got back from them.) Yet they believe this diary that surfaced 50 years later which has only been seen by Dorrance, is true.

The authors are both past high ranking members of the American Alpine Club (past president and past vice president) who wrongly blamed Fritz for the Tragedy back in 1939... coincidence? Makes me wonder...

If you want an unbiased account of the events of K2 in 1939, look elsewhere. "High : Stories of Survival from Everest and K2 (Extreme Adventure)by Clint Willis" includes this K2 story from another viewpoint, check that out first.

If however you are a Jack Dorrance fan and are looking to erase blame from him and pass more of it to Fritz Wiessner, this is the book for you.

An absorbing review of the facts and circumstances surrounding the tragic 1939 K2 expedition and its aftermath. Weaving a newly discovered, first hand account by one of the expeditioners, with already known, heretofore, controversial historical data from others on the expedition, the authors masterfully reconstruct the events which led to the deaths of four individuals, three Sherpas and one American, on K2 in the wild Karakoram range.

After many weeks in the mountains, overcome by altitude sickness and inexperience, only three members of the expedition are physically able or willing to push on to the summit. The only ones so inclined are its expedition leader, Fritz Wiessner, the rich American who bankrolled part of the expedition, Dudley Wolfe, and the plucky Sherpa porter, Pasang Lama.

Dudley Wolfe, with whom Fritz Wiessner seems to have developed a client-guide relationship, is unable to continue past camp VIII, limited by his own inexperience. Fritz, a superb climber, continue along towards the summit with Pasang Lama. They set up Camp IX and continue on towards the summit, where they manages to make it up to within 8oo feet of the summit. There, the plucky Pasang Lama is unable to continue. They decide to return to Camp IX with the intention of resting and returning the next day for a new assault on the summit.

It was not to be. On their descent, they lost their crampons. After they rested in Camp IX, they realized that they needed more supplies, so they went down to Camp VIII. There they found Dudley, but no new supplies had been brought up from the lower camps. So, they all decide to go down to Camp VII to investigate and restock.

On the way down, Dudley's inexperience causes them to have an accident on the ropes. They fall but manage to survive. Pasang Lama, however, is seriously injured, and the sleeping bag and air mattress that Dudley carried is lost to the mountain. Fritz, having left his bedding in Camp IX, expecting to find some in the lower camps, is disappointed when they manage to reach camp VII, only to find it in disarray and stripped of all bedding and sleeping bags! Remarkably, both Dudley and Fritz had by this time spent nearly a month in the dead zone without supplementary oxygen. Therein lies the tale.

Read on! The account is at times mesmerizing. This remarkably well researched chronicle manages to paint a riveting picture of the the travails of this expedition from its confused beginnings to its tragic end. It shows what can happen when all members of the expedition are clearly not on the same page.

This book has an agenda: to once and for all clear the name of team member Jack Durrance of any negligence for the disastrous results of this expedition. Briefly stated, leader Fritz Wiessner was the only member of this six-man team who had any business setting foot on savage, unforgiving, unrelenting K-2. Yet Wiessner handpicked the team himself, except for one-Jack Durrance, who was a last-minute replacement. That is the crux of the controversy. Wiessner, who never admitted mistakes, was all too willing to make Durrance the fall guy. The odd part is with the exception of Wiessner; Durrance had the most mountaineering ability. The other members either had no experience, or only had climbed with the assistance of guides. After enjoying unusually good weather, Wiessner and the doomed Dudley Wolfe were within 800 meters of the summit. The mystery was why with two men at this level, were all the camps below stripped of tents and all equipment, leaving them totally exposed on the descent? Why did Wiessner leave the helpless Wolfe alone and unattended? Why were three Sherpas the only ones to attempt Wolfe's rescue? What happened to the four of them who were never seen again?

The book has some excellent photos depicting the team in their suits and ties, a luncheon served with great elegance in the heart of the Himalayas, and some very clear pictures of their primitive climbing equipment and clothing. It truly makes you realize what odds they overcame to be so high with leaky boots, soggy woolens, and waterlogged tents.

The authors have the advantage of Jack Durrance's diary, heretofore unseen and unknown. This is also a disadvantage because the Kaufman & Putnam seem to rely entirely on the veracity of this diary. It is given far too much weight in making their conclusions.

The book is maddeningly repetitious. Whenever Wiessner is faulted, the authors assure you (in detail) what a fine mountaineer Wiessner was---over and over again. Though the authors are not shy about projecting psychological insights onto the team members, they make no efforts to explore and recreate the violent disagreements that took place. Wiessner and first assistant Eaton (Tony) Cromwell started out as the best of friends. Yet in the aftermath of the climb, Cromwell bitterly attacks Wiessner as a "murderer." Why? What happened to the four men who disappeared? Were they ever found?

The book has merit for it's strong descriptions of the personalities involved and being able to interview living men. However, the style is stilted and the impartiality suspect. Recommended for die-hard mountaineering fans only.

I don't understand these Nit-Picky reviews by the grammar police. This is a good book and an excellent assembling of newly discovered information. The authors have answered the challenge to assemble this information in a way that both entertains and informs. Wiessner was a man driven by desire and motivation. And the stregnth he himself emanated drove and bolstered his entire team. As has happened all to often since 1939, poor weather, poor circumstance, egos, self-image and desire all played a part in this disaster. The fact that Weissner and Wolfe got as far as they did (within 800m) is simply amazing. They were all men of unbelievable stregnth and drive. There is alot of reality in this book and alot of adventure. Only drawback was too many footnotes which had me flipping back and forth to get "more" details throughout the entire read.

On the plus side, this is indeed a proper 'boys own' story and is very well written. Unfortunately, the reader becomes quickly aware of the arrogance of Hillary. Clearly he is a gifted climber who possesed endurance way beyond that of the average human. However, this is over-shadowed by the authors arrogance as he tells the reader how much better he was than those around him.

In a way i wish i had not read the book as it has shattered a romantic illusion I had of what Hillary was really like. It also made me very sympathetic of those who had to endure him in the ice packs of Antartica and the isolation of the death zone of Everest.

Unless Edmund Hillary can produce definitive evidence that A.) George Mallory and Andrew Irvine did not reach the summit of Mt. Everest in 1924 or B.) that Tenzing Norgay was not actually the first to set foot on the summit, he cannot truthfully bill himself as "The First Person to Conquer Everest."

Sir Edmund Hillary was clearly a remarkable man with his life marked particularly by the first successful ascent of Mt. Everest. The descriptions of the climb to the summit of Everest along with Tenzing Norgay are particularly interesting, especially his discussion of the period immediately flowing the first ascent when immense pressure was brought on Tenzing to say that he had reached the summit first. However, Everest was not the only adventure for Hillary. Other trips to the Himalayas and to other parts of the world are described and give you an idea of Hillary's overall achievements.
The most meaningful parts of the book to me were Hillary's efforts to lead the way in helping the Sherpas by building schools, hospitals, and pipelines. Also, the chapters detailing his upbringing give you a good idea of how far he had come from his early days in a beekeeper's family. The chapter about the plane crash in Nepal that took the lives of his wife and daughter was extremely emotional.
However, the book does have its slow moments. I found the sections about the journey to the South Pole to be tedious and confusing. A good map would have helped. Hillary's writing style is fairly pedestrian, but he does give a number of examples of where he thought he fell short as a person, husband, and father. His extreme confidence in his own abilities shows through during the book.
All in all, the book is certainly worth reading if you are interested in Edmund Hillary or mountain climbing.

I found this book a pleasant surprise, after having read a few mountaineering adventure books. If you are looking for one, look elsewhere; Hillary climbed Everest, but did not have any major mountaineering accomplishments thereafter. Instead, we see the picture of a simple man, a very likeable and sincere one, with flaws and virtues.

We can see his sneakiness in going for the south pole despite orders not to, we can see his dedication to the people of Nepal, we can see his somewhat estranged relationship with Tenzing and the tensions that arose after Tenzing said he had reached the summit first. The discussion is a futile one, but it seems to put a damper on the relationship.

In this book we also follow his life, not just his great conquests. We see the backstage of the lecture circuit he went through after Everest, then the honors he received and his attempt to maintain some normalcy in his life. Overall, it is a very good life book, and despite it being filled with adventures, we see the character of a person that is much more than simply an adventurer.

I remember how exciting it was for those of us in London for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation (on June 2, 1953) to find out that Mount Everest had been climbed at last! And Sir Edmund Hillary's story of how he and Tenzing Norgay did it is terrific and even to my suspicious eyes seems sincere.

The portion of the book I was most curious about dealt with the Antarctic Expedition of 1957 to 1958. Hillary was the leader of the Ross Sea Party, which was to was to lay provisions between the Ross Sea and the South Pole to support the crossing of Antarctica by the Transpolar Party, starting from the Weddell Sea. The Transpolar Party was led by the overall expedition leader, Dr. Vivian (Bunny) Fuchs. The two parties reached the South Pole in January, 1958 after which they made it to the Ross Sea in less than six weeks. As the two parties neared the Pole, the telegrams between Bunny and Hillary were in all the newspapers. Vivian had told the story from his point of view in his 1958 book, "The Crossing of Antarctica," and even though that book also included eighteen pages written by Hillary, I was glad to see more of what Hillary had to say, especially with his perspective of writing about it so much later.

This entire book is worth reading and tells us plenty about the life of a successful adventurer.

I've read knot books by other authors and this is definitely the "BEST." I highly recommend this book!!!!!!!!!! It is well organized and easy to follow. All relevant knots are discussed with clear, concise, and easy to follow directions. Illustrations are very clear. Appropriate usage situations for each knot are discussed. I've read other books by Craig Luebben (Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills and How to Ice Climb) and those were great as well.

This is a great book. Simple, clear, all the knots you want to know about without random ones that you don't want. It's got good illustrations, which is key with knots, and also has pictures of those knots in use which is helpful. If you want to learn the most important, basic knots - get this book.

I've just aquired this new edition "knots for climbers" and it is great! The descriptions are clear and easy to follow and the illustrations help to elucidate the procedures. I particularly like how the photos show a given knot in a relevant climbing usage. Other bonuses are: understandable explanations of the different ropes, fall factor, UIAA testing and other usually tough to grasp concepts regarding falls and one's safety gear. Of course the very resonable price doesn't hurt either. This manual, as is also "ADVANCED ROCK CLIMBING" (Long, Luebben), is a must have, indispensible TOOL for anyone who is serious about being a knowledgeable, safe, and self sufficient climber, rapeller or the like. I will use this in my personal climbing and reccomend it to others as well.

Excellent book for bringing along to the rock and practicing with friends.
It is thin enough to fit alongside your guide book in your pack.
It is concise enough so you don't get lost in lots of reading.
It covers all the knots I use and a few more.
Of course, you should practice the knots before you go up the rock.

Knots for Climbers has a few benefits. The basic knots are depicted in step by step procedures which is helpful for the beginning climber. Though the book is exhaustive it does give a good description of the "how to" and "why" of each knot that the book covers. Though with buying other books this one seemed very redundant because the basic knots covered in this book are also covered in other books (which contain a slew of other knots that this book doesn't cover).

For those of you who read "Into Thin Air" and were somewhat fascinated by the story of George Mallory's attempts to climb Everest in the 1920's and the later rumor of the discovery of his body by a Chinese climber in 1975, then this book will only heighten your interest.

I had thought about buying this book, but I came across it at the public library and checked it out. I'm kinda glad I didn't buy it, because the text isn't that well written--people are referred to by their last name and then formally introduced several pages later, some details are left out, other details are repeated, etc.--but the photographs from the 1920's expeditions and of the items recovered from Mallory's body are absolutely captivating. It just fascinates me to no end to think about these guys making the first attempts to climb Everest, experimenting with oxygen tanks, and reaching a height on Everest not surpassed until the 1950's.

I think the main problem with the book is this: the authors had made two expeditions to find Mallory's body in 1986 and 1995. They were unsuccessful. Another team was successful in 1999; this was documented in a PBS/NOVA documentary and they have their own book, which deals more with the discovery of the body. It seems like the authors of this book pulled out the material they had been working on and wrapped it up somewhat hurriedly to capitalize on the publicity (as another reviewer has also noted). So they don't talk much about their own attempts to find Mallory, and they don't talk enough about the successful team's discovery of his body (because they weren't there).

I bought this book thinking that it was written to accompany the wonderful television programme I saw about a 1999 expedition to Everest to discover what became of Mallory and Irvine. It is not.

The book is well presented book and nicely bound. The most attractive aspect of the book is the 1920's photographs; they are very evocative of a lost era when parts of the earth were distant and unexplored. However it is not particularly well written and the discussion of the mystery of Mallory and Irvine's fate is unclear and ineffective. It does not shed light on its subject, and I have had to look elsewhere for that. Poorly served by maps and diagrams it leaves the reader struggling to appreciate the terrain, routes and location of camps. It's weakest point is where the authors try to recreate the last climb by describing what was going through the head of Mallory; this is very unconvincing, not least because no attempt is made to take into account the character of men with English public school backgrounds (to my mind, a key factor). Thus the book fails at the point which is of most interest.

In conclusion, a nice book to browse through thanks to the photographs (hence the 3 stars) but otherwise unsatisfactory.

There are many books on the market dealing with the summit attempts of George Leigh Mallory. No one tome has yet encapsulated the adventures to stand out as the consummate work. It will be necessary to read several books to lay claim to being fully informed. The great strength of LAST CLIMB is in its wonderful collection of vintage photographs from the 1920's British Everest Expedition and its members. Its one thing to read of gentlemen climbers in tweed and quite another to see it, a picture being worth a thousand words and all that. The many dozens of photographs, some taken by Mallory himself, breath life into a much exhausted realm of discussion. Mallory was an aesthete and I believe he would not want his story to be told in the mere blandness of words but exhorted on the artistic level provided by the beautiful photography collected here. Hats off to MR. Breashears and Ms. Salkeld for presenting these heroes in all their glory.

I have read pieces of information about the legendary early expeditions of Mt. Everest and therefor really wanted to read this book. From the start to finish I found this book to be well researched and written. I very much enjoyed the photographs. Now I am curious about the other books written about George Mallory. This book made the men of the expedition come alive.

It states in the prologue that this book was started prior to the discovery of Mallory's body on Mt. Everest. With that said, after reading it; I'm of the impression that it was completed quickly and rushed into print after finding the body so it could sell the maximum number of copies.

I've now read what I think are all the post discovery expedition books. This is an excellent book. There are wonderful pictures of the early British expeditions which are not found in other books and the writing was concise and tried to cover all areas. After reading it, the historical aspects seems to be a greatly pared down version from Audrey Salkeld's previous book with Tom Holzel "The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine".

Overall this is a wonderful coffee table book. It covers Mallory's history with Everest; has plenty of 1920's photographs; a section on how he went into legend like he did: pictures of what was removed from the body and a section which reviews the clues based on where the body was found and what he had on his person. If you have a casual interest in the topic, this is a great book to choose. If you are looking for something a bit more involved, try the aforementioned "The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine" by Tom Holzel and Audrey Salkeld. Looking for a book on the history of the expedition to find clues on the disappearance? The exclusive team story is in "Ghosts of Everest". Conrad Anker's version is in "The Lost Explorer" (he's the one who actually found Mallory's body). My favorite of the expedition books however, was "Lost on Everest" by Peter Firstbrook. It covers historical background on Mallory and the early Everest expeditions in more of a conversational yet detailed manner, and this I found overall the most intriguing.

This book is a critical culture theory treasure. Typically, I would not make an effort to defend a book on Amazon, but in this case it seems necessary. Apparently, previous purchasers were expecting this book to be about Sherpa culture, which it clearly is to anyone who studies culture (perhaps say, an anthropologist, which is precisely what Sherry Ortner is). The commodification of culture by individuals in Western nations is unmistakably represented in these remarks. Obviously they were expecting some form of rationalization for the impact of middle class, white, adventure-seekers on the Sherpa culture. Needless to say, a critical reading of this book (in my opinion, what it was intended for) would isolate for these reviewers that the Sherpa culture is more dynamic than the reading of the first sentence might lead one to believe. I would suggest this book to anyone with the patience and intelligence to read it thoroughly and critically while setting their ethnocentric ideas of the world to the side. Sherry Ortner is, if not the most profound anthropologist of contemporary times, one of them. This book is amazing.

Note that this author who said this book characterizes the Sherpas as "exploited" said he didn't finish the book -- I doubt he read more than a few sentences b/c there's no way that his claim that the book views Sherpas as "exploited" can be sustained with evidence from the text. Ortner is arguing precisely the opposite point, that the Sherpas were able to resist and transform Himalayan mountaineering, and their role in it, to their advantage. Likewise, it's not a postmodernist book, it's a deliberately realist book, aimed at showing the influences of western climbers, Tibetan monks, and the internal dynamics of Sherpa society on the Sherpa-climber relationships and how they've changed over time.

The author is clearly an expert on Sherpas, having lived and studied among them as an anthropologist for over 40 years. She writes this book for the layman in a form of anthropoligical study. She misses the mark both in terms of layman interest, and in terms of an enlighting anthropoligical study. Ms. Ortner looks at several facets of Sherpa life with a view toward how and why Sherpas became involved in mountaineering. It was clear to me, despite all the research and academia, the answer as to how and why remains perfectly clear and not too profound. Carrying loads, establishing camps, and fixing ropes provide the Sherpa with an extremely high income (relative to their society), allowing the climbers to provide greater comfort and a better standard of living for themselves and their families. I was very disappointed in this particular book, and I do not recommend it as a means of insight into the Sherpas.

I bought this book in hardback and was looking forward to reading it. I thought that getting to know the climbing industry from the Sherpa perspective would be fascinating (and it would have been). However, the writing in this disappointing book is so wet with victimology and so heavily in the style of post-modern deconstructed feminist scholarship that it is actually painful to read. I could not finish it. There are too many good books that I will ever get to read. However, reading what I could slog through felt like I imagine climbing Everest without the extra oxygen to feel like.

Unless you are interested in viewing the sherpas as yet another of the endless victims of the western (male) world, stay far away and save your money. The one star is for those who are interested in such things and because I can't give it zero stars. I wish I could get my money back. I rarely pan books on Amazon.com because it makes people upset, but this is a special case for me.

It isn't that the author does a bad job for what she is after, but that I found it personally offensive. Take that for what it is worth.

Although Life and Death on Mt. Everest is a book with an identity crisis, it is nonetheless a fascinating work that should interest armchair adventurers and mountaineers alike. Despite the title, parts of the jacket flap blurb, and even the quotes on the back, Life and Death is really an anthropological examination of mountaineering and the Sherpa-Sahib (author's term) relationship, within the context of the history and culture of both groups. Most of the relatively minor problems with the book arise from the identity crisis; this book can't decide whether it is an academic or a popular work. I suspect, though of course I can't know, that Ortner wrote the book as an academic monograph, and her publishers then altered it superficially to capitalize on the resurgence of Everest interest.

The text itself will present a few problems to the lay reader. It has too much information on Ortner's theory, philosophy, and methods of anthropology if it is intended strictly for the layman. The academic-style footnotes are frustrating; Ortner uses copious end-of-text footnotes, mostly to give citations, but also to supply additional information, commentary, and anecdotes. In order to get that extra information, the reader has to refer back and forth constantly, breaking up the flow of the read. If this is intended to be, in whole or in part, a popular work, Ortner should have moved the added-data footnotes to the bottom of the page, and left the citations at the end. Also, the author is a little too inclusive - she includes more about Sherpa religion than is really necessary to provide cultural background; this distracts from the main theme of the book. It would also, of course, be uninteresting to laypeople interested solely in climbing. Finally, Ortner doesn't always cite authors of quotations in the body of the text. That would be fine for academics, but not so for armchair adventurers, who will be familiar with most of the sources and will always want to know who said what.

However, these are minor quibbles, really, considering the book's value. Although there are huge numbers of expedition accounts and life-of-a-climber memoirs available, there are relatively few books that examine climbing as a culture. And though Sherpas are mentioned in every book ever written about Himalayan mountaineering, the information is always one-sided and usually one-dimensional. Ortner, in one volume, manages to change both those things; she describes climbing from the outside and Sherpa culture from the inside, and in the process brings valuable insight to both. And despite the author's academic bent, the book is not dense or dull; it's a fast, light read, especially considering its depth.

This book is not for readers seeking an adrenaline rush or those with a short attention span, but it is for almost everyone else. Himalayan climbers will benefit from the perspective on both their hobby and their Sherpa partners. Armchair adventurers will finally find the answers to some of their persistent questions about Sherpas, and will also find the view of climbing illuminating. And those who are interested in anthropology or other cultures will be gripped by the descriptions of Sherpa life and acculturation. Basically, the book is an all-around winner.

After reading Duane's non fiction work - on climbing and surfing - I was particularly looking forward to this one. I must admit, I delayed my attempt at this one after reading some of the negative reviews.
I shouldn't have. Duane has followed on where he left off with 'Caught Inside' - it's not your average novel. Certainly it reads with a lot of literary pretension. But it's the uncertainty of the central character - the questioning of his life ahead that grabs me. There are no answers - not even an entirely satisfying resolution - but that's life isn't it?
It just keeps on rolling along, while we keep on looking for something .. or someone ...

I enjoyed my first book of D.Duane's. It was "required" reading for our informal climbing club, although I'm not sure why. It was easy to relate to the narrator's search for fulfillment. The metaphors were entertaining and insightful and simple to digest. The narrator's struggle with relationships and where one fits in the bigger scheme of life fit well in the context of El Cap. However, I was left with a yearning of my own satisfaction or closure, perhaps a guide for my own quest for fulfillment. Regardless, I recommend this book and look forward to more from Duane.

I had high hopes after reading Duane's writing about the surfing world, but was greatly disappointed by the shallowness of this novel.

A favorable review had me looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, the self absorbed narrator's fuzzy saga of a mixed-up friendship never seemed remotely real to me. Throw in plot devices to include a poorly explained antipathy from the father of the "best friend" plus an unconvincing infatuation with a new girlfriend and it all spells a novel in need of an editor or a rewrite. Luckily the late chapter climb sequence on El Cap redeems some of the early awkwardness. Still, I have to believe that Duane's next work will be more coherent and better overall.

More than Dharma Bums revisited--kind of Queequeg & Ishmael climb El Cap as written by Kerouac. After reading Duane's book, I went back and tried to re-read Dharma Bums--couldn't do it. Eastern mystical stuff too hard to wade through. The characters here are real--I know some of them (worse, I may even be one...). And, unlike a lot of Kerouac, this is fun.

As with both of Duane's other books, this is more than a good book, it's a true book.