Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, first hand accounts.
Review: Because I know I will never attempt to climb a high altitiude mountain, I find myself browsing the mountaineering section of my favorite bookstore. This time I found a book that hit the nerve in my body which is so wanting of adventure, triumph and heartbreak, but only vicariously. The book, In The Zone, tells us about the all consuming desire to reach an almost unreachable goal- the top of the mountain. K2 is the second highest point on earth and the most deadly. The story is told about two men waiting and attempting for weeks to reach the summit. Why? For purely selfish reasons. Perhaps to prove to themselves that they CAN do it (even if one of them did dislocate his shoulder and was seriously compromised), or just to say they were there.
In the Denali range, on a mountain called Foraker, three friends start off for what seems to be your basic quickie- 3-4 day mountain climb by 3 strong experienced climbers. It ends in tragedy. There are two other stories in this book. One is about the author himself. The mountains are not sanctuaries, those you carry on your back in the form of a tent and a few other articles of food and clothing. The mountains are a big, challenging death trap, unless one is very lucky.
As a surgical RN at a busy Northwest trauma hospital, I'm intimately familiar, and rather callous, to some horribly injured bodies. Having read the stories of these expiditions I find it incredible that people sometimes survive in the face of blinding windstorms, snowstorms, freezing cold, burning sun and on and on. Most of all, these folks are an inspiration to celebrate life. A must read for those who seek adventure
Rating: 
Summary: Get an editor!
Review: I'm an editor--but I'm also a climber. If it weren't for the latter, I'd have never made it through. This book's stories (well, 2 of the 3) are riveting, but the stories read as if published straight off the rough draft--there is even a clear factual descrepancy or two. The fact that the Mountaineers let this unfinished job hit the book stores is a black eye for a usually fine publisher. If you can stumble through the pained writing (it reads a bit like Fred Beckey's "Challenge of the North Cascades," i.e., the editor was perhaps afraid to touch the thing; did it come straight off a tape recording?) the stories are pretty wild. The Alaska piece is so amazing as to carry itself through regardless of the writing, a real superhuman survival epic; you wonder: would anyone else have survived this? The author's personal story is really about a rescue, which is informative, but perhaps not much interest to nonclimbers. It does leave you wondering "why" the accident happened ... but this is a question the author himself says he can't answer--and it doesn't really matter to the story. The other story, on guide Steve Fischer, reads like filler. I'd still recommend the book, at least to climbers or armchair adventurers--unless they love the English language too much!
Rating:
Summary: Get an editor!
Review: I'm an editor--but I'm also a climber. If it weren't for the latter, I'd have never made it through. This book's stories (well, 2 of the 3) are riveting, but they read as if published straight off the rough draft--there is even a clear factual discrepancy or two. The fact that the Mountaineers let this unfinished job hit the book stores is a black eye for a usually fine publisher. If you can stumble through the pained writing (it reads a bit like Fred Beckey's "Challenge of the North Cascades," i.e., the editor was perhaps afraid to touch the thing; did it come straight off a tape recording?) the stories are pretty wild. The Alaska piece is so amazing as to carry itself through regardless of the writing, a real superhuman survival epic; you wonder: would anyone else have survived this? The author's personal story is really about a rescue, which is informative--and shows the advantage of a first-person recount--but perhaps not much interest to non-climbers. It does leave you wondering "why" the accident happened ... but this is a question the author himself says he can't answer--and it doesn't really matter to the story. The other story, on guide Steve Fischer, reads like filler. I'd still recommend the book, at least to climbers or armchair adventurers--unless they love the English language too much!
Rating:
Summary: What the climbing press says about In the Zone
Review: Reviews of In the Zone In The Zone chronicles some of the greatest mountaineering survival stories ever told. Like a great novel, we emerge from our experience transformed, with a new reverence for the limits of human endeavor and will. Potterfield takes us to a place climbers hope never to visit, where the hold on survival is tenuous.
--Rock & Ice Magazine Forget the hype about the new "extreme" sports; mountaineering has been around for centuries and is clearly the most extreme of all. It's hard to beat Peter Potterfield's harrowing In the Zone, an account of three deadly climbs.
--Men's Journal A journalist and able story teller, Potterfield recounts three harrowing tales: Colby Coombs' struggle to live after a deadly avalanche on Alaska's Mount Foraker in 1992, Scott Fischer's near-death experience on K2, and his own fall and nail-biting rescue that followed. Fischer's experience is arguably the most compelling, as Fischer is dead and the climbing world wants to understand why. Poignant, horrifying . . . .
--Outside Potterfield's matter-of-fact style gets you right into the climber's head. I loved this story [Colby Coombs'] and could not put it down. Potterfield does a good job of mixing direct quotes with his own insights . . . . [He] captures the dangers of Himalayan climbing, but even more interesting are his insights into the mentality required for such extreme risk.
--Climbing Magazine A compelling, troubling look at the dark side of mountaineering.
--Jon Krakauer, author of Into the Wild Expertise and personal experience meet in these three harrowing tales of close calls in the mountains, from a veteran mountaineering writer.
--Seattle Weekly Tense and descriptive. . . a trilogy of true accounts of near-death experiences.
--Eugene Register Guard Journalist and climber Potterfield shows Scott Fischer at his courageous and athletic prime. . . that foreshadows this year's Everest deaths. For the reader, it is a mixture of fascination and agony.
--Chicago Tribune/Universal Press Syndicate In the Zone is riveting reading . . .
--Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph A white-knuckle volume of gruesome stories . . . Not for the squeamish, these are harrowing tales of broken survivors dangling beside corpses, of shattered bodies inching along for miles in blinding agony, of confident expeditions from which only one climber returns.
--The Santa Fe New Mexican In the zone is a masterful account of three extraordinary humans and a fascinating depiction of the struggle for survival . . . a gripping trilogy.
--Adventurous Traveler Three contemporary survival stories, one of renowned guide Scott Fischer who was not denied the summit of K2. Such tenacity in the face of danger typifies Potterfield's prose style, also infusing his other tales of survival. Armchair mountaineers will discover here insights into why mountaineers take such risks.
--Booklist The message from these stories of human drama is clear: think and choose before the climb, not at the onset of trouble.
--John Roskelley, author of Stories Off the Wall
Rating: 
Summary: Lame
Review: The author includes his own accident but steers well away from the cause, I wonder why! Its just annoying.
Rating: 
Summary: Three Good Reasons To Stay At Sea Level
Review: The first story, that of Colby Coombs on Alaska's Mount Foraker, is the most intense of the three. An avalanch swept Coombs and his two partners off the side of the mountain, incredibly he survived and, dispite injuries and lost equipment, managed to walk out under his own power. Motivated not simply by a desire to live but by the knowledge that if he died too his dead partners' friends and families would never know what had happened to them. Bullheaded persistance in the face of physical pain worked for Scott Fischer on K2 but on Everest in '96 the same trait caused his death. As for Mr. Potterfield's own story, I personally think it's quite reasonable for him to focus on the rescue rather than the cause of the accident. A mistake was made certainly but what's the point in placing blame? Far more important - and more interesting - is the skill and effort that went into rescuing him. I can't say I noticed any problems with his writing style either.
Rating:
Summary: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST (AND LUCKY)
Review: This book consists of three stories of survival on harsh mountains. Each story is interesting because the people survived in extreme circumstances. I assisted in the rescue of Mr. Potterfield and was on the hasty team for Seattle Mountain Rescue. The story was well written and provided detail which, as a rescuer, I was not aware.
Rating:
Summary: Gruesome, Gripping, but Not Well Written
Review: This book is made up of stories where "what's the worst that can happen?" does. The first, an Alaskan mountaineering epic, leaves the reader amazed that the lone survivor made it; the second, about Scott Fischer on K2, leaves the reader amazed at Fischer's having survived as long as he did; and the third, Potterfield's own story, spawned much heated discussion and controversy among climbers. Clearly, Potterfield fell because he lost his grip on the rock, but why did he fall to the end of the rope? Did his belayer drop him...? That would certainly explain why he doesn't analyze the accident in more detail. In any case, the last story is the best, not only because it explodes those dearly-held beliefs in fainting before impact, but because it gives a detailed chronicle of a difficult high-angle rescue. Unfortunately, Potterfield does not write very well, but I suspect most readers will hardly notice.
Rating:
Summary: Gruesome, Gripping, but Not Well Written
Review: This book is made up of stories where "what's the worst that can happen?" does. The first, an Alaskan mountaineering epic, leaves the reader amazed that the lone survivor made it; the second, about Scott Fischer on K2, leaves the reader amazed at Fischer's having survived as long as he did; and the third, Potterfield's own story, spawned much heated discussion and controversy among climbers. Clearly, Potterfield fell because he lost his grip on the rock, but why did he fall to the end of the rope? Did his belayer drop him...? That would certainly explain why he doesn't analyze the accident in more detail. In any case, the last story is the best, not only because it explodes those dearly-held beliefs in fainting before impact, but because it gives a detailed chronicle of a difficult high-angle rescue. Unfortunately, Potterfield does not write very well, but I suspect most readers will hardly notice.
Rating:
Summary: What the climbing press says about In the Zone
Review: This books tells the story of three separate mountain climbing rescues. While the subjet matter itself if very exciting and interesting, the style of writing served to make these stories almost boring, if that is possible. In light of the absolutely fabulous books "The Climb" and "Into Thin Air," both about the 1996 Mt. Everest tragedy, this book is a huge disappointment and completely pales in comparison. Don't waste your money on this one. The only reason I give it a "4" out of 10 is because the stories themselves are compelling . Unfortunately, the writing gets in the way. Also, there are factual inconsistencies in the book which any reader can spot, and any editor should have caught.
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