Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared M...
Though not as tall as Everest, the "Savage Mountain" is far more dangerous. Located on the border of China and Pakistan, K2 has some of the harshes...
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reviews
Aug 08, 2011
Beth666ann
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This is an interesting companion to the book (Coffey) I just read about spouses/lovers of mountaineers paying the price when the climbers die. Jordan gives capsule biographies of the five women mountaineers to have successfully summited K2: Wanda Rutkiewicz, Liliane Barrard, Julie Tullis, Alison Hargreaves [edit: to fix spelling of AH], and Chantal Mauduit. These women were varied, interesting, and flawed, and the author does a good job of covering the fullness of their biographies, positive a
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Jul 17, 2011
CJ
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I have a weird affinity for mountain climbers. I love the idea of scaling a mountain and sort of understand why people do it (if I could only get over my fear of heights!). What I don't understand is why people continue to climb even after they've come off a mountain with frost bitten toes and fingers or some sort of high altitude sickness that requires they not climb - or the people with children waiting for them back home. I think I read mountain climbing books to try and figure out what makes
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Jun 21, 2011
Jason
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There is a lot to like about this book, and I appreciated its effort to tell the tale of these five women, to give them each a mini-biography as well as the requisite climbing porn of what happens on the mountain. Unfortunately, I found much of the writing overwrought, particularly when it came to imagined dialogue and thoughts; Jordan is a journalist, not a fiction writer and it shows in the insipid invented dialogue. I also found the pacing to be very hit and miss, which caused me more than a
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Mar 11, 2010
Katie
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Just finished reading Savage Summit by Jennifer Jordan last night. I really enjoyed the book. One of the best written climbing/mountaineering books I have read so far. It is also the first of this genre I have read that was not autobiographical, so not sure if that has anything to do with it.
Anyway, the book is somewhat of a women's history of climbing K2, the second highest peak in the world. K2 may not be as high as everest, but it is certainly more dangerous. At the time this bo More...
Anyway, the book is somewhat of a women's history of climbing K2, the second highest peak in the world. K2 may not be as high as everest, but it is certainly more dangerous. At the time this bo More...
Feb 25, 2009
Emily
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 03, 2010
Jody
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I'm trying to be good and read my books 1 at a time, but I just had to read the intro and acknowledgement pages. Ever since I read Ed Viestus's book "No Easy Way to the Top" (I think that's the title). I've had a facination with the people who aren't satisfied with a normal life like the rest of us.
No, they have to do things like go climbing the tallest mountains in the world - often ill equiped either physically or emotionally. If the rest of the book flows like the parts More...
No, they have to do things like go climbing the tallest mountains in the world - often ill equiped either physically or emotionally. If the rest of the book flows like the parts More...
Sep 03, 2010
Mazola1
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Savage Summit is the story of the first 5 women to summit K2, all of whom are now dead. Three died on the descent, and two in later climbing accidents.
As the book was being written, Edurne Pasaban, the sixth woman to summit K2, returned safely. Happily, she is still alive and climbing, seeking to summit all 14 of the world's 8000 meter mountains without supplemental oxygen. On October 6, 2008, she climbed Manaslu, the world's fifth highest mountain. In 2006, Nives Meroi, an Italian More...
As the book was being written, Edurne Pasaban, the sixth woman to summit K2, returned safely. Happily, she is still alive and climbing, seeking to summit all 14 of the world's 8000 meter mountains without supplemental oxygen. On October 6, 2008, she climbed Manaslu, the world's fifth highest mountain. In 2006, Nives Meroi, an Italian More...
Aug 10, 2008
Liz
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I feel like I was given a glimpse of a sub-culture I'll probably never encounter. How many of us know a mountain climber? Have a friend who just climbed Everest? Yeah, me neither. Jordan lets us into the world of climbing in regards to the first 5 women to summit K2, the worlds second tallest mountain.
These women had a very difficult time being taken seriously by their male peers. The Climbing world doesn't like women climbers and tends to see them as distractions and liabilities. T More...
These women had a very difficult time being taken seriously by their male peers. The Climbing world doesn't like women climbers and tends to see them as distractions and liabilities. T More...
Oct 12, 2010
Vanessa
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I went thru a period of mountain-climbing literature after reading Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster which probably inspired a slew of other non-climbing readers. K2 is actually a more technically challenging mountain than Everest and far fewer people have climbed it. Those who do face a 1 in 7 chance that they will die on the descent. I enjoyed reading about these five women and what drove them to love climbing and eventually die for that love. There was some interes
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Sep 03, 2010
Kate
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I got morbidly interested in climbing disasters after staying home sick one day and feverishly watching several National Geographic Channel programs in a row. The first one was a documentary revolving around the same theme as this book (actually, I think it was made by the author of this book). With that, my interest in K2, and especially the women who'd climbed it, was piqued.
This book is a really honest and engrossing look at the first 5 women to summit K2, the second tallest mountain More...
This book is a really honest and engrossing look at the first 5 women to summit K2, the second tallest mountain More...
Sep 08, 2011
Megan
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A real page turner in an almost morbid, how will they die, kind of a way. I keep thinking about being so close to death & maybe that being the only way to feel truly alive. Made me feel sad for them somehow. My old self relates a bit - only in the reckless aspect.
That being said - the story telling is adventurous & educational. And, in terms of raw talent and physicality-holy powerful women!
Also, I hope these trail blazers (literally) have helped changed the way the sport v More...
That being said - the story telling is adventurous & educational. And, in terms of raw talent and physicality-holy powerful women!
Also, I hope these trail blazers (literally) have helped changed the way the sport v More...
Nov 17, 2009
Sonja
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I really liked this book. I've read a lot of "mountain climbing" books and most are fascinating. This was a little different - focusing on five very strong women and their lives. I admire them all (even if one was rather a bitch)for accomplishing what they did, even if I don't understand how they enjoy climbing in such cold weather, treacherous conditions, and living in the "unclean" conditions they have to endure for weeks at a time. The writer did a great job.
Mar 17, 2008
Susan
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"For most of the modern age "woman climber" has been an oxymoron. Women were almost without exception relegated to the role of wife, widow, prostitute, royalty or slave. But sometime during the late nineteenth century, when the first woman cinched a rope around her waist and lashed her boots into bear claw-shaped steel crampons to climb up ice walls and steep snow slopes, war was declared on the status quo. Boldest of the "warriors" were the first five women who climbed
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Sep 22, 2009
Kimberly
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This book wasn't nearly as interesting to me as "Into Thin Air," so it took me a while to get through it. I wasn't very interested in the life stories of these 5 women (which is what this book was) and would rather have heard more details about their climbs of K2. I just can't imagine how some of these women could leave their husbands and children for weeks and months at a time to go risk their lives climbing some of the world's hightest mountains. And the grotesque description of one
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Apr 24, 2011
Steven
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I happened to read Jennifer's recent book on Dudley Wolfe first and found Savage Summit just as fascinating, perhaps even better. From reading the book I thought she really did her homework and research in interviewing as many of the female climbers families and friends to make the book as informative without drawing too many conclusions. And having travelled to K2 makes her work a bit more credible.
Jun 23, 2010
Rob
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I have read books about high mountain climbing for years, interviewed climbers, and worked as a transcriptionist for expedition dispatches from Everest and other 8000 meter peaks. This is by far the saddest, doom-filled book on the topic I've read. The sexism, disfunction, and compulsion encountered by these brave but obsessed women is at a whole other level. Jordan's writing and research is excellent.
May 27, 2010
Jen
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A good read for someone like me who doesn't know anything about mountain climbing and all the dangers involved, not only for the climbers themselves but for those who had to rescue them. The achievements of some of the five women in the face of the physical and social obstacles are noteworthy, but all that effort and loss for the lone goal of reaching the summit seem ultimately meaningless.
Nov 19, 2010
Anastasia
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Although I did enjoy this book, the writing was very uneven, and for a topic that is usually so exciting, Jordan often failed to write about climbing the tallest mountains in the world in a way that conveyed the thrills and terror of the actual experiences. And although this is a very feminist topic, Jordan almost dismissed any need for a feminist viewpoint even while acknowledging the tremendous amount of sexism these climbers dealt with. I do recommend the book, but expect it to take you a whi
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Jan 27, 2010
Jebmak
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I usually like climbing/caving books. I made it through the first of the five people, but the enitre time, I fetl like the author was trying (unsuccessfully) to make her out to not be a horrible person. She was just so completely unlikeable, that by the time that I made it to the second person, I had no interest in reading farther.
Oct 04, 2011
Leigh
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Disappointing, overall. The topic is fascinating but her writing drove me crazy. High altitude climbing is inherently a pretty exciting and dramatic topic, but Jordan kept using really melodramatic and overblown language to describe everything, which took away from the stories she was recounting. And the passages where she imagined the thoughts and feelings of the five central women were distracting. The things she invented were pretty cliched, and so these passages ended up making the women see
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Nov 30, 2010
Liz B
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I feel like I should add a "mountain-climbing" shelf. I find books like this fascinating. While I like Into Thin Air better, I was riveted by this one, too. (Eating popsicles on my deck in the August sunshine, by the way.)
Jun 17, 2011
Kristy
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I really enjoyed this book. It gave fascinating insight to women climbers and what motivates them. I'm also entranced by K2 and Ms. Jordan's book is one of the best written about the area.
Sep 21, 2011
Kaelie
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Very interesting book about five women and their mountaineering lives and encounters with K2. I was taken aback at the b
Sep 10, 2011
Jen
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Fascinating book about the 5 women who've summited K2 (at press time one additional woman had made it to the top) and what their lives were like. Himalayan climbers are endlessly fascinating to me - I can't imagine making the choices they made, but nevertheless, I love reading about them. Maybe Boulder is rubbing off on me.
Sep 03, 2010
Tammy
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A sad tale of all the women who have climbed K2. As of the writing of the book, all are dead.
What struck me about the characters in the book is their often appalling disregard for the consequences of their passion -- not only for those on the mountain, but for those left behind. I have to ask myself, "Is it worth it?"
Of course, that question is left for each person to judge. As a person who also sees the mountains as the place my soul goes to be home, I can relate to the More...
What struck me about the characters in the book is their often appalling disregard for the consequences of their passion -- not only for those on the mountain, but for those left behind. I have to ask myself, "Is it worth it?"
Of course, that question is left for each person to judge. As a person who also sees the mountains as the place my soul goes to be home, I can relate to the More...
Sep 21, 2011
Kaelie
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Very interesting book about the lives and deaths of the first five women to summit K2. I enjoyed the author's points about women, in general, adjusting to high altitude more easily then men, and was astonished by the chauvinism that these women each experienced in varying degrees.
Sep 03, 2010
Agnieszka
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Amazing stories about the passionate women who braved sexism and even hatred to become the most awe-inspiring women mountaineers and to set up the road for all women in the future. While reading this book I gained so much respect for who these women were and how they overcame so many gender challenges to really face these mountains as women and reach them, when everyone said it was impossible. This book is not only about mountains but about women overcoming huge obstacles and leading the way f
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Sep 03, 2010
Pam
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An interesting account of the five women who had summited K2 at the time the book was written (a sixth summited while the author was writing). The biographical part was interesting, but the author's attitude sort of bothered me - she took umbrage with anyone else's criticism of the women, and yet was highly critical of them herself. For some context of the bias she claimed against women climbers, I would have liked to hear stories of men in similar circumstances. It was definitely an interesting
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