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11th out of 78 books
—
11 voters
Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain
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 harshest climbing conditions in the world. Ninety women have scaled Everest but of the six women who reached the summit of K2, three lost their lives on the way back down the mountain and two have since died on other climbs. "In Savage...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
January 4th 2005
by William Morrow & Company
(first published January 1st 2005)
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Feb 03, 2012
Sarah O'Toole
rated it
3 of 5 stars
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review of another edition
Shelves:
2012-reading-challenge
It's kind of unfair reviewing this after reading Robert MacFarlane's superb "Mountains of the Mind" because it just came across as trashy journalism in comparison. I know this book was about the world's second-highest mountain and the women who have climbed it, but that's no excuse for its lacking depth. The premise of the book is amazing, but she doesn't really go anywhere with it and the feminist angle is some of the most simplistic man-bashing tripe I've ever read. Not that I'm against femini...more
This is an odd mountaineering book and I've read at least a hundred climbing sagas. Maybe more. Plus I climb myself. What is off-putting about this book is it's told in a disjointed fashion. A summit team is high on the mountain and the author launches into a thirty page digression about one of the climbers beginning with their childhood. By the time the author finally gets back to the climb, I've practically forgotten about it. In many ways, I suppose it's similar to the challenge of folding ba...more
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While I was very excited to read about the women to climb K2, I just couldn't finish this book because I couldn't take any more of Jennifer Jordan's writing. I'm as feminist as the next girl, but her overarching theme that mountaineers are all sexist and offended by the very thought of women climbers is a bit much.
For example, I've read several books about the 1975 American expedition of K2... and all agree the expedition was a disaster because of the strained relationships between all of the cl...more
For example, I've read several books about the 1975 American expedition of K2... and all agree the expedition was a disaster because of the strained relationships between all of the cl...more
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 and...more
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...more
Incredible read, I just finished and I'm not sure I can write a review without letting this book settle, but I also want to try and capture the emotions it evoked in me. First off, I don't entirely understand my fascination with books about mountaineering, but I suspect the fact that my father loved climbing in the Austrian and Swiss Alps as a young man has something to do with it. I never had much interest in the subject while he was alive, but now I wish I had listened to his stories and asked...more
Well crafted account of the five women who cliimbed K2, the second highest mountain, between 1986 and 1995, all of whom died there or on another mountain at a later point. As women, they faced many special challenges in their climbing careers, mainly the gender bias reflecting the attitude of "No Girl's Allowed" in this masculine enterprise. Uplifting and satisfying read--as good as "Into Thin Air". The author Jennifer Jordan took six years to write the book, and that shows in the effort. Here i...more
What a sensational title. It actually turned me off a bit-- I didn’t know if I wanted to read it or just send it back to the library; I wasn’t too excited. Until I read the introduction. Jennifer Jordan says that the wheels of this book started turning when she read Into Thin Air, and noticed that (in her opinion) Krakauer sorta singles out and demonizes one of the women on the trip, even though there were men who made worse mistakes. That got Jordan thinking about how climber women are treated...more
I came across Jennifer Jordan's Savage Summit after reading Graham Bowley's No Way Down: life and death on K2, about the 2008 climbing tragedy on K2 when 11 climbers died on their descent from the summit of the second tallest mountain on earth. I was interested in reading her story of the first 5 women who had reached the summit (at time of publishing in 2004) of what is considered the world's most dangerous peak and Jordan's book is a riveting account of these driven women who faced not only th...more
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 book went to pr...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 book went to pr...more
I am one of the many women who had dreamt of how it would be like to be in the presence of mountains as majestic as K2. This book gave a good insight into those who made it - their childhood, their struggles, the gender discrimination they had to go through and the sacrifices they had to make to get there. It showed me how human they are afterall, despite their supernatural willpower to succeed. There was a good linkage between each and every woman's story. I was very engrossed in the book and i...more
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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 I read, it will be a...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 I read, it will be a...more
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 woman, also...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 woman, also...more
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. Though these...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. Though these...more
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...more
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 in the w...more
This book is a really honest and engrossing look at the first 5 women to summit K2, the second tallest mountain in the w...more
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 views women/mo...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 views women/mo...more
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...more
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.
"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 K2, one of the most remot...more
An account of the first 5 women who climbed K2, this book has changed the way I look at mountaineering or mountaineers in general. Jordan has described the fights put up by the women to create a niche for themselves in a domain that is typically marked for men. Handling the criticisms, the politics and inching their way up to one of the most demanding mountains of the world, these women have proven their worth and inspire the generations of mountaineers to come.
This was a good read, mostly because the subject matter itself is captivating. However, Jennifer Jordan could benefit from a solid editor. She often reuses the same word in one sentence, and she has a painful tendency toward the cliche, especially with parallel clauses. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the book, and if you aren't a style snob you probably wouldn't even notice. Then again, how many non-style snobs are on Good Reads?
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 lady's bod...more
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.
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.
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.
Not quite sure how to rate this one. Being a female climber myself, I was interested to read about high altitude mountaineering from another perspective. However, I felt the book didn't go into much detail about the women or their climbs and it seems to have been written by a non-climber. I was left admiring some of the women's ascents but didn't warm to any of them as people. Unsure if that's due to how they were portrayed in the book or if that's what they were really like.
Maybe I come from a...more
Maybe I come from a...more
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...more
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.
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