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 enlarge | Authors: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Publisher: Broadway
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $4.69
You Save: $9.31 (66%)
New (41) Used (24) from $4.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 26602
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0767924711
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522092
EAN: 9780767924719
ASIN: 0767924711
Publication Date: November 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: beautiful hardcover with dust jacket at paper price; immediate shipping
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| Customer Reviews:
Good mountaineering autobiography March 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book consists of three parts. The first part basically sets up the story - - we join Ed on K2 making some bad choices, and jump to some other scenes and people he's known. I thought this introduction unnecessary and basically confused, but it doesn't last that long.
The meat of the book is an autobiography, leading up to Ed's mission climb all 14 of the world's 8000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. This part is great.
Finally, the last, short part of the book discusses a little of Ed's life after he successfully summits all the 8000m peaks. He's now a corporate motivational speaker, and he gives his readers some motivational points. These are pretty platitudinous, and I can never figure out why corporations pay people to deliver them.
In the middle part, my only complaint is that Viesturs hasn't quite decided whether this is an autobiography or a professional autobiography - - in other words, how much of his personal life is appropriate? He spends a lot more time on his professional life, which is the right choice. This means talking about his wife Paula in terms of someone who worries about him when he's out of radio contact, which is all well and good. But then we learn that, between peaks, Ed and Paula disagree about whether to have a third child. There are a few such personal items in the book that just don't fit right because they don't have anything to do with climbing.
Those objections aside, this is a good autobiography of a great mountaineer. His ghostwriter did a good job keeping a chatty, conversational style (presumably from taped interviews) while working the book up and polishing it. If you like reading about mountaineers, you'll enjoy the book.
 Inspired!! March 26, 2008
This account of Ed's triumph over his lifelong goal is both thrilling and inspiring. It's produced in me deep feelings that will take awhile to work themselves out. I think for me it tapped into a deep existing current, rather than sparked a new desire from scratch - but either way this book will be a joy to read, and hard to put down. If I do go on to many years of mountaineering exploits of my own (I'm already signed up to climb Mt. Elbrus this summer), then I'll be thankful at the very least for this foundational wisdom for how to treat the endeavor with the proper respect.
Accurate account of the life of a premier Himlayan climber March 1, 2008
Ed Viesturs has done a very brave thing. He has introduced the importance of safety into a world of alpha dogs all vying for the definitive issue unto the proverbial fire hydrant.
"Getting up is optional, getting down is mandatory." This is Ed's motto and is the greatest truism that could be pounded into the heads of climbers and mountaineers.
I failed to get down once. I did get out however. With some help from a helicopter. I wish I would have lived by Ed's 'motto.' The mountains provide both an irresistible allure of challenge and beauty. The downside is that the environment often varies from unforgiving to deadly.
This is an enjoyable read about one very sane climber and his quest to survive multiple journeys to the top of the world. Safe to add that exceptional genetics played a role.
One of the best! January 25, 2008
This book is super! Ed mixes his own adventures in with just enough history to give it some background. When I reached the end of the book, I was sorry that it had to end but was also sorry that Ed's Endeavor 8000 had been completed. Hopefully, he'll write more books about his mountaineering. I was also impressed by the man himself, who seems to have both integrity and humility. Well done!
 A Long and Boring Commercial January 23, 2008
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
Did Mountain Hard Wear commission this book from Mr. Viesturs? It certainly seemed so. This was badly written, with some truly disgusting passages. (Skip the section where he talks about festering frostbite on a fellow climber's face if you have a queasy stomach.) I purchased this book with high expectations and am very glad that I only paid half price for it. I don't believe that it was skill that took Mr. Viesturs up all of those "8000ers" WITHOUT SUPPLEMENTAL OXYGEN (as he reminds the reader countless times throughout the book) but was, instead, a massively inflated ego that allowed him to virtually float upward through thin air.
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