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Title: White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger by Heinrich Harrer, Hugh Merrick ISBN: 0-87477-940-5 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (10 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Facing down the North Face of the Eiger
Comment: This book details Heinrich Harrer's participation in the first successful ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in the Alps. Harrer goes far beyond simply recounting the story of their 3-day ascent and describes the earlier unsuccessful and often fatal efforts that helped pave the way for their ultimate ascent and several of the subsequent successful and tragic ascents as well. Although written in a somewhat dispassionate manner that may be due to the translation from original German, this book is a very comprehensive description of the story behind the climbs of the Eiger. Worth reading.
Rating: 4
Summary: Risk and rescue on the Eiger North Face
Comment: Heinrich Harrer's words of caution or chastising to those who made the climbing attempt unprepared in equipment, clothing, or experience sound a prophetic note. The disasters on Mount Everest in recent years were partly the result of attempts by climbers without sufficient experience and skill and taking a gamble on decent weather. I commend the author for his ability to relate the travails of the climb. He also recounts failed and successful rescue attempts and the advances made possible by better climbing and rescue equipment. I think few readers will be unmoved by the drawn out death of Toni Kurz in one incident or of an Italian climber in another.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good but could have been better!
Comment: I enjoyed this book, but I kept feeling something was missing. For one thing, I expected long treatment of the famous Lachenal-Terray second ascent in the immediate post-war era, and this was most disappointingly lacking.
Second, there was just .... something missing, somehow. The book seemed like a sterile recounting of history, not like something lived in the passion of the moment. Where were the great blow-by-blow descriptions of entire climbs, complete with pitches from hell, near-falls and miraculous saves, desperate bivouacs, all the great stuff ... ?
I have to agree with the earlier reviewer who said that climbing literature just ain't what it used to be. Sure, it's good to see this classic in English translation. Likewise, it's great to see Gaston Rebuffat's Starlight and Storm in bookstores. But there is so much better out there. Why isn't Lionel Terray's "Conquistadors of the Useless" (for my money the best climbing book of them all) still in print in the US? And why haven't Louis Lachenal's "Vertigo Notebooks" ever been translated into English? And what about Heckmair's own memoirs? Like the other reviewer said: kids today don't know what they're missing. Too bad for them.
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Title: Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage: The Lonely Challenge by Hermann Buhl ISBN: 0898866103 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson ISBN: 0898869412 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson ISBN: 0060730552 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: January, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Conquistadors of the Useless: From the Alps to Annapurna by Lionel Terray ISBN: 0898867789 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Eiger Dreams : Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer ISBN: 0385488181 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 19 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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