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The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna--the World's Deadliest Peak Kindle Edition
“Viesturs and Roberts have written an exhaustively researched and wonderfully compelling history of the most fascinating and dangerous of the Himalayan giants.”—David Breashers, veteran mountaineer and documentary filmmaker, director of IMAX film Everest
As a high school student, Ed Viesturs read and was captivated by the French climber Maurice Herzog’s famous and grisly account of the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950. When he began his own campaign to climb the world’s fourteen highest peaks in the late 1980s, Viesturs looked forward with trepidation to undertaking Annapurna himself. Two failures to summit in 2000 and 2002 made Annapurna his nemesis. His successful 2005 ascent was the triumphant capstone of his climbing quest.
In The Will to Climb Viesturs and co-author David Roberts bring the extraordinary challenges of Annapurna to vivid life through edge-of-your-seat accounts of the greatest climbs in the mountain’s history, and of his own failed attempts and eventual success. In the process Viesturs ponders what Annapurna reveals about some of our most fundamental moral and spiritual questions—questions, he believes, that we need to answer to lead our lives well.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCrown
- Publication dateOctober 4, 2011
- File size7497 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“A detailed, nicely told account of a man’s endurance and perseverance in achieving a singular goal.”—Publishers Weekly
About the Author
David Roberts was the author of more than twenty books on mountaineering, adventure, and history, including No Shortcuts to the Top, K2, and The Will to Climb, which he co-wrote with Ed Viesturs and a memoir On The Ridge Between Life and Death. He has written for National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, and Smithsonian. David Roberts passed away in 2021.
Product details
- ASIN : B004KPM17Q
- Publisher : Crown (October 4, 2011)
- Publication date : October 4, 2011
- Language : English
- File size : 7497 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 310 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #787,454 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #229 in Mountaineering (Kindle Store)
- #472 in Outdoor Instructional Guides
- #659 in Adventure Travel (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
More info at www.edviesturs.com
Biography:
Washington resident Ed Viesturs is widely regarded as this country's foremost high-altitude mountaineer. He is familiar to many from the 1996 IMAX Everest Expedition documentary and in 2002, he was awarded the historic Lowell Thomas Award by the Explorer's Club for outstanding achievement in the field of mountaineering. In winning the award, he joined an elite group of climbers including Sir Edmund Hillary. In 1992 he was awarded the American Alpine Club Sowles Awards for his participation in two rescues on K-2.
Viesturs is a professional mountaineer and works as a design consultant for several prominent outdoor equipment manufacturers such as Eddie Bauer and Timberland. He also represents companies such as Rolex and the Seattle Seahawks. He does corporate motivational speeches as well, touching on subjects such as Team Work, Overcoming Major Obstacles, and Planning and Preparation.
Viesturs has successfully reached the summits of all of the world's fourteen 8000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen, an 18 year project he christened Endeavor 8000. His goal was completed on May 12, 2005 with his ascent of Annapurna one of the world's most treacherous peaks. He is one of only a handful of climbers in history (and the only American) to accomplish this. That year Viesturs was awarded National Geographic's Adventurer of the Year.
During the 18 year span to climb the world's highest peaks he went on 29 Himalayan expeditions and reached the summit on 20 of these occasions and stood on the top of Everest seven times. He climbs without benefit of an oxygen tank, which can be burdensome and potentially troublesome. Only a superior conditioned athlete can scale heights of 25,000 feet without artificial oxygen - a fact Viesturs has turned into an important metaphor for his audiences (i.e., that the key to the journey is in the time and energy invested in the preparation).
Viesturs motto has always been that climbing has to be a round trip. All of his planning and focus during his climbs maintains this ethic and he is not shy about turning back from a climb if conditions are too severe. In spite of his conservative attitude Viesturs has been one of the most successful Himalayan climbers in American history. His story is about risk management as well as being patient enough for conditions to allow an ascent. Ultimately, in his words, "The mountain decides whether you climb or not. The art of mountaineering is knowing when to go, when to stay, and when to retreat."
At the start of their 2005 season the Seattle Seahawks football team brought in Viesturs to speak to them about teamwork. The team and coaches incorporated some of his messages and ideas into their practices and games and went on to play in the Super Bowl that season. According to Viesturs, regardless of the industry, teamwork is the same: "It is an implicit trust in, and recognition that the person next to you is No. 1," he explains. "If we're climbing a mountain together and you slip and fall, I'm there to save your life" - which is the ultimate definition of teamwork. Another lesson Viesturs espouses is the importance of perseverance, or going step by step and not getting discouraged when working toward your goal. Viesturs recalls once being just 300 feet away from the top of Mount Everest when he had to turn back.
In October 2005 Viesturs best selling autobiography "No Shortcuts To The Top" was published and released by Random House Books. The book covers in detail Ed Viesturs' career as a mountaineer, how he prepared for his expeditions and his philosophy about how he managed the inherent risks.
Viesturs was born in 1959 and now lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington with his wife of 13 years, Paula, and their children. He continues to go on adventures. On May 19th 2009 he made his 7th ascent of Everest. Most recently on July 8th 2009 made his 203rd ascent of 14,410' Mt. Rainier while guiding Seahawks Coach Jim Mora and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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I bought my wife a copy of the women’s expedition to Annapurna.
She was thrilled!
That said, I felt that Ed spent too much time telling the reader what he was going to write instead of just writing.
Also, much of the content was covered in previous books.
Still, definitely worth a read if you like Himalayan climbing literature.
Top reviews from other countries
This fascinating book about Annapurna features many men who lived and died because they'd found their 'specific thing' on the daunting, deadly but sublime 8000 metre peaks.
Fortunately for us, expert storyteller Ed Viesturs is not one of them. He's climbed all of the 8000 metre mountains and lived to tell the tale, and what a tale! Have now downloaded his book on K2 to read next.
Comme dans ses autres livres Viesturs suit une démarche dépassionnée et réfléchie. Il s'intéresse aussi aux à-côtés des ascensions, le contexte, les rapports humains, la faiblesse humaine, la peur et la volonté, l'obstination, la chance... Pas de forfanterie, ni d'alpinisme spectacle. Il ne cherche pas non plus à entretenir des conflits d'égos, même s'il évoque les controverses qui existent dans le milieu. Dans tout cela, une mention particulière doit être faite à l'attachement familial, sa femme et ses enfants ont une présence forte : une pierre dans le jardin de Maria Coffey.
A noter Viesturs a rencontré Hetzog aux Etats-Unis et s'est fait dédicacer "Annapurna premier 8000", son livre de chevet de jeunesse qui a décidé de sa vocation. Pour un américain, il a une connaissance vraiment fine de l'alpinisme européen. Il est vraiment sympathique de voir le coup de chapeau qu'il lui tire et notamment aux français !!
Un portfolio de 5 pages de photos en couleur permet de se faire une représentation des lieux et des "personnages". Les différentes voies suivies sont clairement figurées.
NB. Le livre est coécrit par David Roberts, auteur notamment du livre qui a dévoilé les dessous de la première ascension de l'Annapurna. L'anglais est très accessible.