Rating: 
Summary: When things go wrong....
Review: Tragic is the key word in this title -- needless might have been another. A good example of how experienced people can make horrible decisions, the contentious expedition to Nanda Devi is recounted here. While not "Into Thin Air", there is a quality to this book lacking in Krakauer's Hollywood production that is appealing to me.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic account
Review: Wow. My first reaction on reading this book was amazement as to how dysfunctional this team was due to the fractured leadership style. The inability of the strongest climbers to agree on strategy and work loads contributed to the team's overall slowness on the climb. Yet they still managed to put people on top of the mountain. Other climbing expedition books often make allusions to similar types of disagreements on strategy and plan but this one really lays it all out in front of you. My second reaction was that there are surely two or more sides to any story -- this version of the climb was surely colored by Roskelley's own self-acknowledged aggressive personality and his bias/perceptions of what his team members were thinking at each step of the way. The second afterword from Roskelley describes a bit more of other team members' own reactions. The story was compelling but I left one star off the review because the writing style was somewhat wooden. Plus, I wanted to hear more about the climb from someone other than Roskelley to get a different perspective.
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