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Summary: This book is a must read montaineering book.!
Review: I rarely read a book twice, but this is one that I couldn't resist picking up again! High drama, with insights into the terrible physical and psychological dangers of mountaineering and the price that must be paid to climb possibly the most difficult mountain in the world. The excellent writing by Rick Ridgeway weaves the interrelationships of climbers with each other, the mountain, and the eventual sacrfices to be the first American team to reach the summit of K2. If you love adventure; want a better understanding of alpine mountaineering; or to see why K2 is probably the most formidable of the great mountains...read this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting Read
Review: In spite of all the fighting and split factions, this expedition was able to successfully place 4 men on the summit of K2 in 1978. Ridgeway is a compelling writer, who is able to retain reader interest and develop his characters well. He effectively gave me insight into the different personalities of the climbers. It was interesting to read about all the dissentions and miscommunications, plus get the exciting climbing experiences of the two separate summit parties. Ridgeway's description of his summit day experience made me feel like I was actually there feeling the bitter cold, and trying to suck down enough oxygen to breathe. I doubt there would have been a successful summit ascent if the 4 who made the summit hadn't been their persistent, focused selves.I have decided that any moutaineering story that includes climber John Roskelley will undoubtedly have some sort of controversy, as he likes to air his opinions, telling it like it is. He wrote "Nanda Devi," which is another interesting mountaineering adventure that includes drama and controversy as well. I recommend it in addition to "The Last Step." I have started to read Cherie Bremer-Kamp's (known to the '78 K2 American expedition as Cherie Bech) book, "Living on the Edge" to try to understand her character and motivations a little better. She was one of the controversial members of the '78 expedition. Even after reading her perspective of the K2 expedition and her relationship with Chris Chandler, I still can't help but wonder at the insensitivity and disrespect she showed to her husband (and the father of her two children) who was climbing on the same expedition! Especially after the vehement denials on her part! There are always two sides to a story, I guess. Read this book, you won't be disappointed. It's got it all, drama and climbing adventure.
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Summary: The last step -- or the last straw?
Review: Ridgeway describes the epic story of the first successful American climb of K2 in 1978. K2, the second highest mountain in the world, has always presented unique challenges due in part to its remote location and in part to its degree of difficulty. There are two fascinating aspects to this climb that are explored in great detail. The first key sub-plot tells the story of the organizational and personal issues that emerged as the expedition dragged on week after week. The schism that developed between the four aggressive climbers (Ridgeway, Reichardt, Wickwire, and Roskelley) and the other climbers demonstrates the pressures that can grow within any small group of people, friends or not, when they are subjected to incredible physical demands, differences of opinions, and the need to wait out the inevitable storms. With some of the challenges they faced, it is remarkable that the entire team continued to carry loads up the mountain day after day and that they were ultimately successful in putting four climbers at the top. The second sub-story describes the route selection process by the lead climbers at the top of the mountain. They were exploring a new route in difficult conditions. Ultimately, this culminates in the decision, whether forced by equipment failure or by choice, by three of the four climbers to make for the top of K2 without the use of supplemental oxygen - a feat that had never been completed before. At the same time, the almost hallucinatory description of Wickwire's emergency bivouac at 28,000 feet is a compelling story of his determination to survive. This book is a great read for those interested in the history of mountain climbing.
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Summary: Be sure to dress warmly!
Review: The most amazing thing about this book is the sense of being there it creates for the reader. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to be on a high-altitude expedition, this is the book. I've read a number of other mountaineering books, but this one stands out in putting the reader in the action. Aside from that, the book is also an inspiring story of heroes who knew what they wanted and were willing to do whatever it took to get it.
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Summary: Be sure to dress warmly!
Review: The most amazing thing about this book is the sense of being there it creates for the reader. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to be on a high-altitude expedition, this is the book. I've read a number of other mountaineering books, but this one stands out in putting the reader in the action. Aside from that, the book is also an inspiring story of heroes who knew what they wanted and were willing to do whatever it took to get it.
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Summary: Breaking the mold
Review: This book really did break the mold concerning how expedition account books were written, although some would put that label on Galen Rowell's account of the previous American K2 expedition: In The Throne Room of the Mountain Gods. Prior to In The Throne Room and The Last Step, the interpersonal aspects of expedition life were typically kept private in the books, in the British tradition. In The Throne Room exposed the rifts between team members on that expedition, but not in the compelling manner which Rick Ridgeway pulled it off in The Last Step. It's amazing that the team managed to summit 4 members given the difficult route chosen, the horrid weather and the altitude, let alone the infighting. Then again, Wickwire, Reichart, Roskelly and Ridgeway were not the types of climbers to back down easily. One has to wonder how much correlation there was between the infighting and the stubborness of the leading climbers.
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Summary: K2 90210...
Review: This is the best non-fiction book I have ever read. It very vividly recreates the camraderie, the fatigue, the infighting, and the sheer passion that are a part of such an expedition. The best chapter perfectly describes the author and a colleague projecting hundred foot shadows on the terrain thousands of feet below as the afternoon sun sets behind the ridge which they are ascending, conveying so unmistakably to the reader why people climb these mountains. I highly recomend this book.
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Summary: Fascinating Combination of Soap Opera and High Adventure
Review: This terrific climbing book combines the larger stories of a struggle to climb the "world's hardest mountain," K2, with a smaller soap opera about a very diverse group of people trying to acheive a goal without driving each other crazy. From a distance, one might see a cohesive group of climbers, pulling together through the interminable months-long task of hauling supplies and tents up through a series of ever-higher camps, one step up, and then two steps down. But closer up, Ridgeway describes in fascinating detail, how the expedition dissolved into competing cliques, and how selfishness and teamwork collided. There's even an extra-marital love triangle. While this book is not as much of a page-turner as Into Thin Air, it is one of the finest mountaineering books out there; a must read in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Combination of Soap Opera and High Adventure
Review: This terrific climbing book combines the larger stories of a struggle to climb the "world's hardest mountain," K2, with a smaller soap opera about a very diverse group of people trying to acheive a goal without driving each other crazy. From a distance, one might see a cohesive group of climbers, pulling together through the interminable months-long task of hauling supplies and tents up through a series of ever-higher camps, one step up, and then two steps down. But closer up, Ridgeway describes in fascinating detail, how the expedition dissolved into competing cliques, and how selfishness and teamwork collided. There's even an extra-marital love triangle. While this book is not as much of a page-turner as Into Thin Air, it is one of the finest mountaineering books out there; a must read in this genre.
Rating:
Summary: High drama in the mountains
Review: This vivid account of the 1978 climb of K2 via the west ridge is an exciting follow up to the failed 1976 attempt up the east ridge. The Last Step is thus a follow up to galen Rowell's wonderful book about that attempt called "In the Throneroom of the Mountain Gods". Ridgeway vividly describes the climbing, the horrendous bivoac at 27,000 feet and the hazardous descent, all without supplimental oxygen. He also pulls no punches in describing the infighting and jealousy that upset the group, and while it was nothing like the brutal infighting that marred the 1976 climb, it had a power effect on the overall climb. While Jon Krakauer has raised the bar on these books to a level that Ridgeway could not have known in 1978, "The Last Step" is a good and exciting read, especially when combined with Rowell's classic. Ridgeway is a good climbing writer with a sharp eye.
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