Rating: 
Summary: A Fascinating Story, A Cold Book
Review: I'm climber, and I live in Seattle. Being a climber in the northwest means you spend a lot more time thinking about climbing and waiting for good weather to climb, than actually up in the mountains. So, you read a lot of climbing books. Some, like Galan Rowell's "In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods" or Jon Krakauer's "Eiger Dreams" and everyone's favorite "Into Thin Air" are vivid, transporting writing. Others, like Reinhold Messner's books, remind you that the skills and drive that make you a world-class climber don't necessarily make you a good author. Eric Shipton, a great climber in his own right, wrote a completely dry, bloodless book about the history of Everest expeditions.So it isn't all that surprising that Wickwire's book doesn't have a lot of insights. There isn't much of what literature professors like to call an interior life. It was to me a strangely emotionless and slightly troubling book. And I have to agree, it's a poor choice for a title All the basic facts of his climbing life are laid out. You certainly learn a good deal about the first and second K2 expeditions, and his triumphs of Mt. Rainier (first winter ascent of the Willis Wall) and near-death experiences. Years ago I saw a movie made about a climb to an unclimbed peak in the Fairweather range in Alaska; it was interesting to read here more fully what happened. It's chilling to learn how thoroughly a body can disintegrate on a fall down a rock face (after the fall, where two of the climbers died, they recovered bits of scalp, bone fragments, pieces of camera, and so on.) But it's all facts, straightforwardly laid out, without much apparent interest in interpretation. Perhaps this comes from Wickwire's professional life as a corporate attorney, writing legal documents. It's interesting that the description of Wickwire's famous bivouac below the summit of K2 is related much more vividly in John Roskelley's book, than in Wickwire's own book. Perhaps that's because Wickwire wrote twenty years after the events. At the REI "flagship store" in Seattle, you can see the bivouac sack in which Wickwire spent that night., and REALLY get a feel for how cold and alone he really was. The troubling bit: from reading the book, one comes to the conclusion that the great love of Wickwire's life isn't Mary Lou, his wife, but Marty Hoey, the woman he climbed with on Acancagua and Everest. There are excerpts of what can only be described as love notes between him and Marty. For Mary Lou he expresses respect and appreciation, and there are numerous passages where he expresses regret at the time spent apart from his children, but the expressions of passion are all directed towards Marty. I suppose the honesty is laudable, but this must be a very hard book for his wife to read.
Rating:
Summary: Resonable Action, and Annoying Egos
Review: While the action kept me reading on, the depth of the characters was lacking. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was reading an adventure book, or a self-help guide. I can appreciate his attempt to develop the inner conflict between what he really wanted, and his sideline attempt to be a family man. However, I found it hard to sympathize much with Jim Wickwire. I finished the book thinking that the author had carried out his egotistical nature into a book to share with the world. I did not finish the book with a feeling of admiration for the sport or the climber, but with more of a disappointment. These caliber of climbers seem to be a rather dysfunctional and egotistical bunch. In that sense, I think the author failed to make his point. In a good sense, I think the author has taken a hard and perhaps humbling look at what is really important in life.
Rating:
Summary: A Summit Too Far
Review: I wanted to like this book. I wanted to open the next chapter and be enthralled in the summit of another successful climb. I wanted a riveting, can't wait to turn the page mountain climbing experience, but this book never really took off for me. Instead, this memoir of climbing, by arguably one of the most successful climbers in North America, tries to provide an inner glimpse into what drove him upward. What was it? What inner reasoning caused him to do the things that he did? Each chapter found me either calling him an idiot for leaving his family, or admiring his courage and the inner strength and will that drove him up the mountains that he climbed. Jim Whitwire tells his story well. The opening chapter sets the tone for the entire book with his personal tragedies thrown in right alongside the personal triumphs. He takes his fair share of credit for the successes; he takes his fair share of credit for the failures. Actually, one could argue that the failures overshadow the successes. In either case, this book isn't written as a trumpet heralding the accomplishments of Jim Whitwire. It's a memoir of his career, as he lived it, with insight into why he thought he was doing what he did, and how he perceived others around him while he did it. He tries to explain why he kept going for summit after summit, but never really addresses why each summit fails to produce what he was searching for. Fortunately for him, but frustrating for the reader, he seems at peace realizing that he may never know what he was searching for. Which as any writer should know, at least leaves room for a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Successes and FAILURES in Mountaineering
Review: All too often we read about the awesome success stories of mountaineers. I like how Jim shares his successes and failures on the world's highest mountains. Although Jim's adventures are on a grander scale than my own (see Rocky Mountain Adventure Collection), we both go out of our way to share the "failures." When facing the extreme forces of nature, you can't always reach the summit. There are many times you must choose between attaining your goal, or surviving. Jim had the brains to choose life when faced with many decisions that could have cost him his life. I was pleased to read that we both regard Reinhold Messner as the greatest mountaineer of all! I also enjoyed hearing about Jim's struggles to balance his climbing desires against his family's needs. There is no doubt his family suffered while he was out fulfilling his mountaineering desires. On one hand, he had to climb while he had his health and youth. On the other hand, he lost invaluable time with his family that is forever lost. Even though I've fantasized about devoting years to climbing like Jim did, I realize that you have obligations once you decide to become a husband and a father. My family comes before my "selfish" desires of climbing.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, just ho hum
Review: All in all, this book just didn't do it for me. Wickwire's musings on life, death, religion, marriage, family, and all that stuff seem so sophomoric and flimsy--not to mention hackneyed--that I had trouble not flinging the thing across the room at various points. Not to be cruel, but the writer's views on the afterlife (for example) make Shirley MacLaine look like Gandhi. I'm genuinely happy that the writer has become a more self-realized husband and father and all that, but, frankly, I read a mountaineer's memoirs for the mountaineering, not for explicit commentary on personal stuff. On the other hand, I did enjoy Wickwire's climbing narratives, at least a little. Wickwire will always be associated with K2--and probably vice versa; it is good to have his account of this important ascent in the first person. I wish the whole book had been about K2. While the title of the book is atrocious, it is the book's narratives of dangerous situations that keep the reader going (just as it seems to be, in part, the danger of climbing that keeps the mountaineer going). This book will certainly do for a rainy day or a long plane ride (or even a long, nasty bivouac), but it is nowhere near mountaineering lit. at its best. Look to Jon Krakauer or Joe Simpson for that
Rating:
Summary: good read
Review: although sad at times, Jim Wickwire gives a good account of all his adventures spanning a long climbing career. I especially like the little song about his first expedition to K2 (somewhere around pg. 100) it was semi-inspiring to me (it made me want to take another crack at McKinley) it is a good book for the money. I also recommend Maurice Herzog's book about the first ascent of Annapurna.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent autobiography on one's desire to climb
Review: Wickwire tells a powerful story from his college "bouldering" days to his attepmts on Everest. I have heard stories before about the famous bivouac on K2, but to hear him tell you himself is simply amazing! An extraordinary tell of a man who was driven by that unknown "sixth sense" that all climbers have and get tired of explaining it to those those who ask "why climb" -because if we have to explain it, you'll never get it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book(HI MRS.HENRY! )
Review: I gave this book 5 stars because it is an excellant memoir on mountain climbing, on life, on losing people and many other aspects. This book shown a lot about human spirit. The spirit to thrive and suceed knowing the consequences. Of course, different people varies. In this case, Jim Wickwire, a very accomplished mountaineer experiences a weighted ambition and love from his family. He reached many summits, including the 2nd highest peak, mount k2. Which is also rated the most difficult. He lost many of his mountain companions/close friends that he vowed to never climb mountains again to endanger his life. Everytime though he failed to keep that promise. Because 'A promise is something you want within yourself, or else it cannot be kept.' And in Jim's heart, climbing mountains is his life(kind of...) and he is ADDICTED TO DANGER. You should get this book because it tells the experience of a person's life who loved mountaineering, not just a memoir, but a book that makes you think. If you are into extreme sports, this book is for you too! Other recommendations: into thin air.
Rating:
Summary: Addicted to Danger: Affirming Life in the Face of Death
Review: Excellent book. A lot of mountain climbers are of the "professional" breed such as the late Alex Lowe, Greg Child, Chris Bonnington,...Jim Wickwire, however, is a semi-professional (he is a lawyer in Seattle) whose accomplishments put him up there with Mallory, Hillary, Bonnington, and Lowe. He is the first American to set foot on the summit of K2 which is America's equivalent to England and Everest and France and Anapurna. Mountain climbing is the most dangerous of what can be called "extreme" sports. This book describes the trimuphs as well as the tragedies in detail so clear that it brings an icy edge to your breadth. I would highly reccommend this book to anyone, mountain climber or not, who wants to read a gripping tale.
Rating:
Summary: this book is what got me intrested in ice climbing
Review: this book is a wounderful way of finding out about what climbing is all about and what can happen when something goes wrong. i'm sixteen year of age and fully enjoyed this book. this is a book that you can't put down. the author just draws you in as he depicts the vivid memories of his triumphs and faluiers
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