- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (Mar 20 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312261535
- ISBN-13: 978-0312261535
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 15 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 490 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,971,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Unsoeld, who made the first ascent of Mt. Everest's West Ridge in 1963, was perhaps the most influential high-altitude mountain climber of the 1960s and 1970s; as a professor of philosophy at Evergreen State College, he was also an entertaining and "spellbinding" lecturer. The bulk of Roper's gripping biography describes Unsoeld's 1976 Indo-American Nanda Devi Expedition, which he conceived as a tribute to both to the first ascent of India's tallest peak in 1936 and to his 22-year-old daughter, Devi, who was named after the mountain and who joined the expedition as the fulfillment of a dream. Roper presents the troubled expedition marked by infighting, sickness and Devi's death from intestinal problems just short of the peak as a "sea-change" in climbing: whereas "the ethos of camaraderie" had been essential in Unsoeld's 1963 ascent, by the mid-'70s, it had disappeared. ("As Tom Wolfe declared," Roper writes, "it was the `Me Decade.' ") Through an analysis of Unsoeld's graduate studies in philosophy, Roper shows how the Nanda Devi climb was, in many respects, the realization of Unsoeld's belief that when an "outcome is shadowed by doubt and you may well be on a suicide mission, you feel most intensely alive." But in the two years of life that remained to him (he died in a Mt. Rainier avalanche in 1979), Roper argues that Unsoeld was "devoted to an active refusal to recognize what had happened." This is a provocative look at a still-legendary climber. Two 8-page b&w photo inserts not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
A spirit-seeking hippie before hippies even existed, mountaineering legend Willi Unsoeld named his daughter after India's tallest peak: Nanda Devi. Twenty-two years later, in 1976, Nanda Devi died on Nanda Devi. Her fate, her father's attitude about climbing, and mountaineering's transition from amateur hobby to slick commercial enterprise are all covered in this book. Roper does not offer a biography (a niche filled by Lawrence Leamer's Ascent, 1982) but, rather, sorts out conflicting accounts of Unsoeld's dissension-wracked expedition to Nanda Devi. Ostensibly undertaken to commemorate its first summitting in 1936, the expedition's real motive was to facilitate Nanda Devi's intimate communing with her eponym. Famed as half the duo that first climbed Everest via its western ridge in 1963, Unsoeld was past his prime 13 years later. So the group included a younger, stronger alpinist named John Roskelly, who was not looking for Hindu deities or self-actualization; he hoped to become an entrepreneurial guide. Not the smoothest of narratives, Roper's story of the conflict will nevertheless gain purchase with fans of adventure books. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
Climbers and porters mill about outside a drenched village, Lata, in the Garhwal Himalaya of India. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Climbers and porters mill about outside a drenched village, Lata, in the Garhwal Himalaya of India. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
I could have done without the philosophy,
By Robert R. Chanpong (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fatal Mountaineer: The High-Altitude Life and Death of Willi Unsoeld, American Himalayan Legend (Hardcover)
Yes, we are all human, and have egos. Mr Roper did more to erode the human Mr Unsoeld with his speculation, grandiose words and tangential philosophy, than to give us insight into the great man himself. I recommend this book to only those who want more 'fluff' and less 'stuff'.
1.0 out of 5 stars
5th Grade Level of Writing,
By "teamw" (Ca) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fatal Mountaineer: The High-Altitude Life and Death of Willi Unsoeld, American Himalayan Legend (Paperback)
Well, what can I say about this book? Not too much. This book read like an opinion column in your local Sunday newspaper or, better yet, like a trash tabloid. The author seemed hell bent on destoying John Roskelley every chance he got. It seemed un-ending, low-brow and ultimately childish, hence, the title to my review.At times this book was irritating , other times it made me yawn. Roskelley's book on the Nanda Devi tragedy is a much more engrossing read and hard to put down. Now I'm not comparing this books section on the Nanda Devi tragedy to Roskelley's book but, I do find it interesting that a person who wasn't even remotely associated with the climb can so easily pick it apart and smear the good names of some of its members all the while effectively cannonizing others. Which leads me to my next point: This book is supposed to be an homage to a great mountaineer, Willi Unsoeld, but the author doesn't even do his books subject honor. The author re-hashes the American Everest climb from 1963, but this has all been done before, there is no new insight, no new offerings.The author talks about Unseold's untimely death but, again, nothing new. This book, is in effect, boring. It is also aggravating. I found myself getting quite irritated as the author continued to take his perpetual pot shots at Roskelley and Jim States. The author wasn't on Devi, he wasn't on Everest in '63 and he wasn't on Ranier with Unsoeld when he died.The author had no first hand experience and I found his biased slop a let down and boring.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Painfully boring,
By A Customer
This review is from: Fatal Mountaineer: The High-Altitude Life and Death of Willi Unsoeld, American Himalayan Legend (Hardcover)
The writter forgot that this was a book about a mountaineer. This could have been an exciting, inspiring book about a great climber and instead its a book about someone's ramblings since other more interesting books were apparently already written
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
