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High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2 (The Adrenaline Series) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jon Krakauer, Matt Dickinson, Chris Bonington, Ed Webster, Brummie Stokes, David Roberts
Creators: Eric Conger, Clint Willis, Graeme Malcolm, Alan Sklar, George Guidall, Simon Prebble
Publisher: Adrenaline Audiobooks
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $4.95
You Save: $20.00 (80%)
New (11) Used (2) from $4.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 979641
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio Cassette
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 4
Pages: 6
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1885408358
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.5220954914
UPC: 762458302647
EAN: 9781885408358
ASIN: 1885408358
Publication Date: December 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ** MINT CONDITION **, Still in original shrink-wrap. Excellent Copy! Fast Shipping. AB8
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Amazon.com
Editor Clint Willis collects some of mountaineering's finest writing in these tales from storied expeditions to grails like Everest and K2. Included are classic accounts of early American attempts on K2, by consensus the most daunting and ruthless peak to summit. Frank Smythe's telling of his 1933 attempt and Charles Houston and Robert Bates's from 1938 typify the wooly-knickered bravado of pre-war climbing. As counterpoint, Willis serves up Galen Rowell's sad and unadorned journal from the tempestuous 1975 failed expedition. But there are other angles as well. Tucked in the middle of High is a gem told by an Everest widow, Maria Coffey, who traveled to the base of the mountain that took her husband and his partner: "I could pick out the ridge where Joe and Pete were last seen. The image blurred, tears were washing down my face and collecting in the jacket collar pulled tightly around my chin." In a collection of writing that soars it is a moving--and grounding--reminder of mountaineering's risks. --Tipton Blish
Book Description
Everest and K2two of the most feared and respected peaks in the world. High offers a unique perspective on climbing these two peaks, from early exploration disasters, to the modern tragedies. With writing from Jon Krakauer, Matt Dickinson, Chris Bonington, David Roberts and others, these stories remind us, in vivid written accounts, why Everest and K2 are among the worlds most dangerous places, yet why the worlds best climbers cant stay away from them. High is an adventure audiobook at its most compelling.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 An Essential Book January 28, 2005
This is a classic. Well told stories of the difficulties encountered climbing Everest and K2. The machismo seems to have been left far below the altitudes these climbers struggle at. These true accounts finally wind together around common threads of stress, inability to think and act rationally under extreme conditions. Minor decisions and misunderstandings result in triumph or failure.
A great book.
David Roberts has established himself as an essential source for understanding why we seek adventure and what really is there in the midst of it. I've got a list of his books and I plan to read all of it.
 Mildly Interesting but a Tad Repetitious August 9, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This attractively presented volume is a compilation of excerpts from various accounts of attempts, successful or otherwise, to climb Everest and K2. These accounts are for the most part from different English and American expeditions from the 1930s onwards, but include for variation the first-person narrative of travels through Tibet toward the fatal mountains by the widow of a fallen climber.
Some expeditions take a massive army-style assault on the peaks, using complicated supply chains, support teams, hundreds of Sherpas, and tons of equipment. This is sort of the "Humanity Conquers Nature" approach. Others plan for basically a sprint up the mountain, traveling light with minimal support and small groups, and eschewing the use of oxygen cylinders and fancy gadgetry. This is the "Triumph of the Will" approach. These purists are always keen on trying routes no one else has attempted, and they avoid using the ladders and fixed ropes and stuff left by previous expeditions.
It's that latter style of climbing that has become especially dangerous, because once someone has reached the pinnacle without oxygen, the bar has been dramatically raised, and anyone who follows and doesn't try the same looks weak. So ever-escalating feats of bravado must necessarily follow, where it won't be long before we'll see accomplishments such as "first to climb Everest while naked" or something like that.
While there are a number of gripping scenes related in this book, there's also a great deal of repetition. A whole lot of verbiage is devoted to, essentially, "Man, it's cold up there!" So we read again and again about firing up stoves and snuggling into sleeping bags and taking an hour to put on boots and the like. There's also a lot of technical language to be encountered, which is likely to be appreciated more by climbers than the layperson, who has to wade through a lot of "I jumared down the fixed 5mm rope across a transverse field of powder to reach the couloir beyond cul that led to the cwm". Climbers will be nodding knowingly; armchair adrenaline junkies will be scratching their heads. (Note that a glossary of terms is hidden at the back of the book where it does no one any good.)
Ultimately, the most interesting tales prove to be those where the climbers hate each other and fall into bitter bickering over who gets to make the dash to the top, or who fouled up and ruined everything. The mountains have many ways to kill people, but a lot of the tragedies are of the "and they were never seen again" variety. I'm not advocating that we should be exposed voyeuristically to all of the gory details of horrible deaths, but most of the disasters are rather pallidly rendered, and frankly the human drama ends up being more interesting than hearing again and again about the interesting technical challenges of getting over the Abruzzi Ridge or whatever.
An assortment of maps would have helped immensely.
the interior climb May 20, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I very much enjoyed and highly recommend this book. I've read many of the books from which these chapters are selected, yet there was much fresh material for me. The editing was so masterful that even though the chapters are from different writers, mountains, and times, they flowed together seamlessly High does for climbing what the movie The Thin Red Line did for combat: It explores not the details of the event, but the inner thoughts of the participants. You read what it feels like to have a climber dying in a tent next to you. You learn about the humilation of having frostbite while back at home. You are with the widows who trek in the paths of their husbands to glimpse the mountain graves of their loved ones. While I can understand that some reviewers felt the selections dropped one into the middle of a big problem high on a mountain without the broader context of the expedition, I didn't feel this was a problem. I don't need the beginning, middle, and end to enjoy a brief tale. There are plenty of books that give all those details, yet few that are gripping to read from the first page to the last.
 Don't Bother with this one! March 6, 2002
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
Like all of you who read this review,you're Everest junkies who probably won't even get near this mountain, but are hooked on all books about it.
High; Stories of survival from Everest and K2 is NOT what you're looking for. This book is nothing but one-chapter excerpts from other books. It's like walking into a movie half way through: You have no idea what's going on. Also, there are no maps of either Everest or K2, so if writers of these chapters (and some of them are BORING writers!) describe trouble on Everest's north col or K2's Abruzzi ridge, we can't picture these places in our minds.
This book (unlike all the other Everest books I bought and immediately read) has been sitting on my bedstand for months. I only read it when I wake up at 3AM and can't go back to sleep. Just reading from this book puts me back to sleep reeeeeal fast!
Don't bother with this one. The Everest season is happening right now. Maybe more books will come from this year's hikers.
damn good read February 25, 2001
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is the first book i've read that was a collection of excerpts from other books. It is a real page turner and you will work through it quickly, desperately wanting more non-fiction adventure reading to follow. Well anyways, just buy it. you won't be disappointed.
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