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Adventurist Jim Wickwire has lived life on the edge -- literally. An eyewitness to glory, terror, and tragedy above 20,000 feet, he has braved bitter cold, blinding storms, and avalanches to become what the Los Angeles Times calls "one of America's most extraordinary and accomplished high-altitude mountaineers." Although his incredible exploits have inspired a feature on 60 Minutes, an award-winning PBS documentary, a Broadway play, and a full-length film, he hasn't told his remarkable story in his own words -- until now.
Among the world's most intrepid and fearless climbers, Jim Wickwire has traveled the globe, from Alaska to the Alps, from the Andes to the Himalayas, in search of fresh challenges and new heights to conquer. Along the way he accumulated an extraordinary roster of historic achievements. He was one of the first two Americans to reach the summit of the 28,250-foot K2, the world's second highest peak, acknowledged as the toughest and most dangerous to climb. He completed the first alpine-style ascent of Alaska's forbidding Mt. McKinley, spending several nights without tents in snowcaves, crevasses, and open bivouacs. But with the triumphs came harrowing incidents of suffering and loss that haunt him still. On one climb, his shoulder broken by a fall, he watched helplessly as a friend slowly froze to death, trapped in an ice crevasse. Buffeted by storms, Wickwire spent two weeks utterly alone on a remote glacier before his rescue. On two other expeditions he witnessed three fellow climbers plunge thousands of feet, vanishing into the mountain mist.
A successful Seattle attorney, Wickwire climbed his first mountain in 1960 and discovered the wonder of leaving behind the complexities of the civilized world for the pure life-and-death logic of granite, glacier, and snow. Deeply compelled by the allure of nature and the thrill of risk, he pushed himself to the limits of physical and mental endurance for thirty-five years, ultimately climbing into legend.
After more than three decades of uncommon challenges, Wickwire faced a crisis of heart -- a turning point that threatened his faith in himself and his hope in the future. How he reassessed his priorities and rededicated his life -- to his family and to his community -- completes a unique and moving portrait of one man's courage, commitment , and grace under pressure. Addicted to Danger is a tale of adventure in its truest sense.
ASIN : B003L77WHS
Publisher : Atria Books (May 8, 2010)
Publication date : May 8, 2010
Language : English
File size : 11624 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 346 pages
Reviewer: Dejan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book about climbing
Review: I love this book, Wickwire takes you on adventures with him and describeds in detail the deaths of few of his frieds, and his ability to survive.His frieds make fun of him for cutting steps in a summit peak as they descend and than they fall to their deats, also his word is the only one on the death of Marty Hoey. Jim goes at great length to discribe this addiction to adrenaline and love of climbing and pushing one self to limits. Wickwire is a survivor his many brushes with death make the pages come alive, I recommend it
Reviewer: readsalot
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Gripping first-person accounts
Review: Bought this as a gift for a climbing friend. Already have a copy for myself. Fascinating read.
Reviewer: christine gates
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: fascinating insights about one of America's greatest mountaineers
Review: Jim Wickwire together with Lou Reichardt were the first Americans to climb K-2 in the Himalayan Karakoram- a peak far more technically difficult than Everest. Wickwire's book is a series of chapters that detail his K-2 ascent but also many other climbs throughout the world that became a fixation for him. Addicted to Danger is an appropriate title as it is the only explanation for why someone who loves his wife and his five children and repeatedly refers to them in his writings would willingly expose himself to such high risk endeavors. Likewise, the tragic deaths of a number of his climbing companions which are also detailed in the book would seemingly make one ponder on whether to continue climbing at such an extreme level. Wickwire exposes his innermost feelings about his family, his sport and the psychological conflict between the two. It's a fascinating book.
Reviewer: J. LAURIA
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: good read. A real inside look into Wickwire's climbing ...
Review: About what I expected, good read. A real inside look into Wickwire's climbing career. If you are looking for climbing excitement or in depth writing of a climb, this is not for you. However, I like to learn about individual climbers, and this read did that.
Reviewer: Bon Jovial
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: He Can't Explain
Review: This is a great book to read if you want to learn more about Jim Wickwire and some of the mountaineering greats of the modern era. If you want a well-written book that makes you feel as though you're climbing a lonely peak in bitter cold yourself, read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." For all the time Wickwire has spent in amazing and beautiful surroundings, he seems largely unable to describe them. Wickwire's story telling always seems focused on the action and never on the scenery. Half the mountaineering terms he tosses around are only explained in the glossary you find in the back of the book.It was interesting to me how the writing about non-climbing related aspects of his life are presented in a fairly lively manner while his accounts of his early expeditions seem to have been copied out of his journal without much in the way of revision. This book would really have benefited from a vigorous, professional editing. In fact, his publisher should have demanded it. Wickwire certainly has a story or two to tell and it was irritating to for me to be distracted by his clunky writing.All that being said, he has led an interesting life in the mold of the classic Victorian gentleman explorer-gone for months at a time, knowing his wife and children (five!) only through the post. People have called him narcissistic, self-centered, and monomaniacal. All true to some degree, I am sure, but how else would you expect him to have accomplished so much? His list of mountaineering accomplishments, included here in loving detail, is astonishing.Reading this book never answered for me the question of "why?" Why take these huge risks time after time? As someone who has been willing to push myself to the point of hallucination for nothing more than bragging rights and a t-shirt or belt buckle, I should have a pretty good handle on the "why" question, but I don't. That is perhaps why he doesn't really tell us "why" in this book. Maybe he really doesn't know either. Maybe it's just pretty fun to be up on the mountain with a fairly simple set of obligations in front of you: Keep moving. Stay alive.Maybe it's on the edge of death we finally see what is life. Maybe some of us need that more than others. Maybe Wickwire needed that a lot more than the rest of us.I suspect that this book was able to come to into being only because Wickwire had retired from serious climbing. I also suspect it was harder for him to write the book than to mount an expedition to climb Everest. Most of the stories have a painful aspect, and he doesn't skimp on the unflattering details. While it's not a great mountaineering book, it was certainly an interesting read. I'm glad he finally wrote it.
Reviewer: Ed Viesturs
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great life lessons on and off the mountain
Review: As a mountaineer, I enjoyed the life off the mountain as well as the vulnerable side of Jim's climbing life. His successes and defeats make this one of the best books I've ever read on how mountaineering touches ones life on and off the summit.
Reviewer: Lisa Scales
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great story
Review: Super fun and honest look at a lifetime spent farting around in the mountains. I really enjoyed it, and could relate to jims thoughts
Reviewer: Layne T. Oliver
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An incredible adventure in the life of a mountaineer
Review: I wish I could have climbed with Wickwire---- The adventure and endurance he has experienced is incredible! If you want to be swept away for a while to the realm of the climber, Read this book! L.T. Oliver