High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places | 
 enlarge | Author: David Breashears
Creator: Jon Krakauer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  72 reviews
Sales Rank: 79399
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Touchstone Ed
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0684865459
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522092
EAN: 9780684865454
ASIN: 0684865459
Publication Date: May 17, 2000
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Condition: Ships immediately! Perfect and New! Has a publisher remainder mark. 1st Touchstone Ed. 2000 Paperback.
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Amazon.com
David Breashears has climbed Mt. Everest four times. For this, he is known as a world-class mountaineer. A lengthy career in documentary filmmaking--including the Imax film, Everest--has earned him wide acclaim and four Emmy awards. For this, he is known as one of the elite cinematographers in his field. But his new autobiography, High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Other High Places, proves he is more than a climber and a filmmaker; he is also an able writer. Breashears has no lack of good material. We follow him through the stunning backdrops of Yosemite, Europe, Nepal, and Tibet, brushing up against triumphs and tragedies along the way. And while the nuts and bolts of his adventures are entertainment enough, his knack for building suspense and employing understated drama makes his autobiography read like a novel: "The morning was sunny and calm, and Rob looked as though he'd lain down on his side and fallen asleep. Around him the undisturbed snow sparkled in the sun. I stared at his bare left hand ... I wondered what a mountaineer with Rob's experience was doing without a glove." Breashears also likes to remind his audience of humble beginnings surmounted: his early climbing days when he was known as "the kid," and a winter he spent sleeping under a sheet of plywood during the Wyoming oil boom when he was called "the worm." But mostly he documents his filmmaking career and climbing passion, both of which he approaches with an obsessive fervor. Readers interested in either pursuit will find High Exposure a fascinating traverse across the spine of the world. --Ben Tiffany
Product Description
For generations of resolute adventurers, from George Mallory to Sir Edmund Hillary to Jon Krakauer, Mount Everest and the world's other greatest peaks have provided the ultimate testing ground. But the question remains: Why climb? In High Exposure, elite mountaineer and acclaimed Everest filmmaker David Breashears answers with an intimate and captivating look at his life. For Breashears, climbing has never been a question of risk taking: Rather, it is the pursuit of excellence and a quest for self-knowledge. Danger comes, he argues, when ambition blinds reason. The stories this world-class climber and great adventurer tells will surprise you -- from discussions of competitiveness on the heights to a frank description of the 1996 Everest tragedy.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 67 more reviews...
Good overview of Breashears' career both as a climber and a producer July 24, 2008
This book is organized such that each chapter is devoted to a single milestone of Breashears' life. In each case he gives a general overview of that milestone, along with a few descriptive details of particular situations. But mostly, it is an OVERVIEW of the experiences that made him the man that he is today. After my initial disappointment that the book wasn't as detailed as I had hoped it would be, I accepted it the way that it was and truly enjoyed the rest of it.
Chased by His Demons, Spurred on by His Gods December 20, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a young man, David Breashears looked at a photo of Tenzing Norgay standing atop Mount Everest. He knew at once that he wanted to pursue mountain climbing. His dedication drew him to hone his skill until climbing became his life and Mt. Everest in particular, "etched itself in the landscape of his soul". I look at a photo of someone standing in -65 degree weather, punishing their bodies to the limits of what a human can endure and think, "Wow, people do the damndest things, don't they?" This book provides insight into a life filled with a passion I will never feel.
It is not easy to live a life dedicated to mountain climbing and still earn enough money to allow you to follow your dream. David explains how he was able to succeed and live well by discovering he could become a specialist in climbing photography.
The story of his life is compelling. He grows up with an abusive father, who almost completely disappears from the family's life when the mother divorces him. David swears to never become like his father and sets off to make his way in life driven by his need to climb. He lives rough, works at the most menial jobs, and studies his calling. He totally rejects the cruelty he saw in his father, and totally embraces his love of climbing. His is a most unusual life. As attested to in many other books, there is plenty of drama on a shear face or Himalaya climb. But not every moment of climbing is as fascinating to me as it is to those who love this sport. The proper use of various alpine tools is no doubt a life and death issue, but parts of these discussions failed to hold my interest. Still, it is a fascinating book. There is poignancy in the fact that even though David vows to not become like his father, he distances himself from his wife until the marriage simply melts into nothing. The relationships he likes best are those formed on climbing expeditions; brief, intense, soon over. He is the quintessential "guy's guy". I don't usually look to autobiographies for great writing. And while the writing in this book is competent, it is the story that keeps it compelling. This is a look at a fascinating life, a saga that allows the "rest of us" a glimpse into a life obsessed with mountains.
 Possibly the best modern 'autobiography' mountain book November 29, 2007
A short, climb-heavy, autobiography about famous filmmaker/climber David Breashears, High Exposure captures the imagination with it's simple, sparse narrative style. The story follows the author from his youth as an army brat traveling from base to base with his mother, siblings, and an abusive father, to his apprenticeships on the rock faces of the American west, where he gradually earned the respect and admiration of his fellow climbers, to his eventual travel to the Himalaya, and his work there as cameraman for numerous expeditions.
Breashears doesn't write with the lyrical style of a Greg Child, or the novelist/journalist style of a Kraukauer, or the heavy human-interest angle of a Jim Curran. Rather, his writing is simple, easy to digest, and paints stark pictures of a life in the mountains. In fact, the climbing descriptions are first-rate, and he discusses pitches he's ascended, their difficulty, the challenges overcome, and the lessons learned. I was struck by the attention-to-detail he reveals in his writing, and this book gives you that 'you are there' feel more than any of the other aforementioned writers - and leaves you hungering for more.
Out of the probable fifty books I've read on mountaineering in the Himalayas, I would rank this as one of the finest. While reading, Breashears does a first-rate job of capturing the exhilaration, fear, sense of accomplishment and dedication that climbing one of these giant peaks brings to those who attempt it.
Highly recommended.
What an incredible book. October 27, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What an incredible book. Once you start reading it, you won't be able to set it down. I even got yelled at by my boss for reading the book on company time. I've read it 4 times and each time is like the first time. There is alot of information to process so get ready be blown away. It's awsome. Also, if you missed reading Tino Georgiou's masterpiece--The Fates, go and read it.
 3 1/2 stars July 3, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read several mountain climbing/Everest books lately and this is in the top half of that list. That having been said, as one reviewer noted, it was more interesting than gripping, and for all the ability to give a auto-biographical look at a world class climber, it didn't really capture the drama of the climb. Since reading about it is about as close as I'm ever going to get to doing it, I need something that makes me feel the cold and the wind and the struggle for air. This was more of a narrative retelling, and emotion is overly removed from the story.
Everest is almost as much of a protagonist as Breashears himself, and it was indeed very interesting to read about the history, about the other expeditions, and about the call on the author that brought him to climbing as a life. It was enough, and I recommend the book without reservation, but I would say read "Into Thin Air" if you are looking for a more powerful and exciting retelling of an Everest climb.
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