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Master of Thin Air
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In 1967, 12 young men attempted to climb Alaska's MountMcKinley - known to the locals as Denali - one of the most popular and deadly mountaineering destinations in the world. Only five survived. Journalist Andy Hall, son of the park superintendent at the time, investigates the tragedy. He spent years tracking down survivors, lost documents, and recordings of radio communications. In Denali's Howl, Hall reveals the full story.
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In early May 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dying near the top of Mount Everest while forty other climbers walked past him on their way to the summit. A week later, Lincoln Hall, a seasoned Australian climber, was left for dead near the same spot. Hall's death was reported around the world, but the next day he was found alive after spending the night on the upper mountain with no food and no shelter.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Eiger Dreams
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devils Thumb.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
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Buried in the Sky
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When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world’s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great perspective & a total page turner
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No Shortcuts to the Top
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For 18 years, Ed Viesturs pursued climbing's holy grail: to stand atop the world's 14 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.
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5 out of 5 stars
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NO SHORTCUTS
- By Anatoliy on 04-05-10
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Denali's Howl
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- By: Andy Hall
- Narrated by: Jim Manchester
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 272
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 246
In 1967, 12 young men attempted to climb Alaska's MountMcKinley - known to the locals as Denali - one of the most popular and deadly mountaineering destinations in the world. Only five survived. Journalist Andy Hall, son of the park superintendent at the time, investigates the tragedy. He spent years tracking down survivors, lost documents, and recordings of radio communications. In Denali's Howl, Hall reveals the full story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Calling
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
With heart-pounding descriptions of avalanches and treacherous ascents, Barry Blanchard chronicles his transformation from a poor Native American/white kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world. At 13 he learned to rappel when he joined the 1292 Lord Strathcone's Horse Army Cadets. Soon kicked out for insubordination, he was already hooked on climbing and saw alpinism as a way to make his single mother proud and end his family's cycle of poverty.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inspirational.
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Dark Summit
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 617
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 435
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Story4 out of 5 stars 430
In early May 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dying near the top of Mount Everest while forty other climbers walked past him on their way to the summit. A week later, Lincoln Hall, a seasoned Australian climber, was left for dead near the same spot. Hall's death was reported around the world, but the next day he was found alive after spending the night on the upper mountain with no food and no shelter.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good summary of the 2006 season
- By Don Lance on 05-30-09
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Eiger Dreams
- Ventures Among Men and Mountains
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Philip Franklin
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 175
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 174
No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devils Thumb.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By dion campbell on 01-14-19
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Buried in the Sky
- The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day
- By: Amanda Padoan, Peter Zuckerman
- Narrated by: David Doersch
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 512
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 449
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 445
When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world’s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great perspective & a total page turner
- By Jennifer on 05-31-16
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No Shortcuts to the Top
- Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks
- By: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 894
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 644
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 649
For 18 years, Ed Viesturs pursued climbing's holy grail: to stand atop the world's 14 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.
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5 out of 5 stars
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NO SHORTCUTS
- By Anatoliy on 04-05-10
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Limits of the Known
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: David Chandler
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19
David Roberts, "veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures" (Washington Post), has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity's - and his own - relationship to extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very well read
- By JOSE M RIVERA on 11-17-18
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Should I Not Return
- By: Jeffrey Babcock
- Narrated by: Jeffrey T. Babcock
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 3
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
Should I Not Return is the story of a young east coast climber, who joins his brother in Alaska to climb Mount McKinley. What set their climb apart from those before it, and even those afterward, was a disaster of such magnitude that it became know as North America's worst mountaineering tragedy. Prior to July of 1967 only four men had ever perished on Denali, and then, in one fell swoop, Denali - like Melville's, Great White Whale, Moby Dick - indiscriminately took the lives of seven men.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing Story. It made my hikes truly stupendous.
- By Aaron on 02-06-13
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The Climb
- By: Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 444
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 299
The Climb is a true, gripping, and thought-provoking account of the worst disaster in the history of Mt. Everest: On May 10, 1996, two commercial expeditions headed by experienced leaders attempted to climb the highest mountain in the world, but things went terribly wrong...
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5 out of 5 stars
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Must read to understand 1996 Everest disaster.
- By Sona Vavrouskova on 03-16-15
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Epic
- Stories of Survival from the World's Highest Peaks
- By: Greg Child, David Roberts, Stephen Venables
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
"Epic" is a mountaineering term that evokes a sense of treacherous disaster. The climb that went wrong: fighting blinding snowstorms and horrific avalanches; days spent tentbound running low on food, water, and oxygen; surviving broken bones and shattered spirits. This program offers a collection of the most memorable accounts of legend-making expeditions to the world's most famous peaks, often in the worst possible conditions.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Chronicles of misery.
- By CWW on 02-17-19
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Kiss or Kill
- Confessions of a Serial Climber
- By: Mark Twight
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
Mark Twight is a BANFF award-winner, an extreme climber, an extreme writer, and an extreme personality. No matter what he's doing, Mark Twight takes a definite, and often controversial , stand. Anyone who knows climbing knows Twight's name, and anyone who knows Twight's name will want to listen to this audiobook. Each story is told in Twight's taut, in-your-face style. Brand-new epilogues bring each piece full circle, providing updated information and fresh, hindsight perspectives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An exciting, fresh, and viciously enjoyable book
- By The Lonely Reader on 09-02-16
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Dead Mountain
- The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
- By: Donnie Eichar
- Narrated by: Donnie Eichar
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,579
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2,377
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,378
In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mystery & Intrigue In The Ural Mountains
- By Sara on 06-30-15
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Ghosts of K2
- By: Mick Conefrey
- Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
At 28,251 feet, K2 might be almost 800 feet shorter than Everest, but it’s a far harder climb. It will kill you on the way up and the way down. Mick Conefrey guides us through the early story of the legendary mountain and the extraordinary attempts that led up to its first ascent in 1954 - these are tales of riveting drama and unimaginable tragedy.
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3 out of 5 stars
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First Review? It was an "okay" book
- By Matthew on 10-20-15
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Touching the Void
- By: Joe Simpson
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott, Daniel Weyman
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 631
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 569
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 570
Joe Simpson, with just his partner, Simon Yates, tackled the unclimbed West Face of the remote 21,000-foot Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in June of 1995. But before they reached the summit, disaster struck. A few days later, Simon staggered into Base Camp, exhausted and frostbitten, to tell their non-climbing companion that Joe was dead. For three days he wrestled with guilt as they prepared to return home. Then a cry in the night took them out with torches, where they found Joe, badly injured.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderfully told true story
- By David Shear on 01-17-14
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Classic Krakauer
- 'Mark Foo's Last Ride,' 'After the Fall,' and Other Essays from the Vault
- By: Jon Krakauer
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
In these fascinating essays, Jon Krakauer shows why he is considered one of the finest investigative journalists of our time. The articles, gathered together here for the first time, take us from an otherworldly cave in New Mexico to the heights of Mt. Everest; from the foot of the volcano Mt. Ranier to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska; from the notebook of one Fred Becky, who has catalogued the greatest unclimbed mountaineering routes on the planet, to the last days of legendary surfer Mark Foo.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narration doesn't match the content
- By Anonymous User on 12-15-18
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How to Mount Aconcagua
- A Mostly Serious Guide to Climbing the Tallest Mountain Outside the Himalayas
- By: Jim Hodgson
- Narrated by: Jim Hodgson
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4 out of 5 stars 33
A mostly serious guide to climbing the tallest mountain in the Western and Southern Hemispheres, this efficient book includes a hilarious day-by-day account, with detailed descriptions of the challenges facing a climber on Aconcagua, such as when to wear your Crocs, which pop music divas to enjoy, and the challenges of pooping at high altitude. Everything you need to know about what it's like to attempt to summit Aconcagua is in this audiobook, served up on a tasty bed of humor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Super funny
- By ric on 04-19-18
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The Push
- A Climber's Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits
- By: Tommy Caldwell
- Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 884
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 784
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Story5 out of 5 stars 781
On January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell, along with his partner, Kevin Jorgeson, summited what is widely regarded as the hardest climb in history - Yosemite’s nearly vertical 3,000-foot Dawn Wall, after 19 days on the route. This engrossing memoir chronicles the journey of a boy with a fanatical mountain-guide father who was determined to instill toughness in his son to a teen whose obsessive nature drove him to the top of the sport-climbing circuit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best adventure, and maybe best autobiography I have read.
- By Jordan B Chapell on 05-24-17
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Die Trying
- One Man's Quest to Conquer the Seven Summits
- By: Bo Parfet
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
In early 2003, a young Wall Street investment banker named Bo Parfet set out to accomplish something very few had done before - climbing the highest mountain on every continent. He was not a professional climber, but what began as a casual interest would soon become a lifelong passion and in just over four years, Bo would overcome the odds and conquer all of the mountains - Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Denali, Vinson Massif, Elbrus, Carstenz Pyramid, Kosciusko, and Everest - with courage, unbridled passion, and determination.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Ok but lacking
- By Craig on 09-16-15
Publisher's Summary
Named one of the "Five Adventure Books You Need to Read This Summer" by Backpacker Magazine.
For listeners of Into Thin Air, riveting high-altitude drama and the passion and drive that inspire outsized mountaineering achievements.
Master of Thin Air opens with a fall that the author very nearly could not stop down an almost vertical rock ramp leading to a 3,000-foot drop. The qualities that saved him then on K2 - in addition to his mountaineering know-how and sheer good luck - drove his 16-year journey to summit all of the world's 8,000ers, the 14 peaks that exceed 8,000 meters (26,000-plus feet) and take climbers into the death zone. Incredibly, he accomplished that feat without the aid of bottled oxygen for every mountain but one. By preference, he climbed solo or in small teams, without Sherpas. During 23 expeditions, he spent a total of three years clinging to the sides of dangerous mountains. He lost more than 20 climbing friends and, in April 2014, witnessed Everest's deadliest avalanche.
His book is a riveting, often thrilling account of what it takes to challenge the Earth's highest peaks and survive. It tells of death-defying ascents and even riskier descents, the gut-dropping consequences of the smallest mistakes or even just bad luck, the camaraderie and human drama of expeditions, and the exhilaration of altitude. It is also the inspiring story of what motivates a person to achieve an extraordinary dream, a story of passion, resourcefulness, self-motivation, and hope - even in the most dire moments.
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Overall
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars28
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars27
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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- Mike Milward
- 11-06-16
Tedious, redundant
The same story over and over. Ed Visters books are much better. Very repetitive, self aggrandizing which is understandable given the enormous challenges involved. Just way too much of the same.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mr Mark J Burgess
- 12-05-16
Narrator was difficult to listen to.
Two stars to the narrator for trying, but the accent is terrible.
For an author who is at pains to make the distinction between a 'real' climber and one who is just guided along, I find it ironic that he has allowed his book to be read by someone with a fake Australian accent.
I would have preferred to listen to a 'real' Aussie read it. (I wouldn't have cared if an American read it with an American accent, I just found the fake accent very distracting).
I suppose I should have been a 'real' reader.....gotten an ebook and read it myself. At least I know how to pronounce Mt. Kosciuszko
1 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cody R.
- 04-08-16
Great Book!!!
Great book!!! Couldn't stop listening to it... If you like mountaineering books, you will love this book and if you don't love mountaineering books you will throughly enjoy this book haha... Good narration and well written book...
1 of 2 people found this review helpful