High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places
by David Breashears
List Price:
Our Price: $0.96
You Save: $15.04 (94%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David BreashearsForeword: Jon Krakauer
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-05-17
ISBN: 0684865459
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places
Book Review: High Exposure from the Female Perspective
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this book. I'm been pressed for time lately and had read the first three-quarters before putting it down and surrendering to my busy holiday schedule. It wasn't that I was bored with it, just pressed for time. Then, over Christmas, my cousin loaned me several videos about Everest, including Breashears' IMAX movie, and The Death Zone, a movie made by, and including, Breashears. After viewing those one evening with a visiting friend, I was fired up to finish the book, and I'm glad I did! Breashears' voice is authentic and matter-of-fact. He approaches the mountain and his relationships with the same understanding of circumstance and his own shortcomings. He doesn't emote, nor is he cold. I was touched by his descriptions of the Everest accidents of 1996 and, frankly, suprised by his even-handed, kind descriptions of Sandy Hill Pittman, who was eaten alive by the media following the disaster. It was nice to hear the perspective of someone who knows her and had climbed with her previously. It was obvious that many mistakes were made on the summit attempts that season. It also showed me that the media may have skewered Ms. Hill (since divorced from Pittman) for being a "socialite" and a wealthy woman, with the emphasis on woman, when in fact many people attempted to buy their way to the summit of Everest that season. Many of the people who have summited Everest and are not professional alpinists are extremely wealthy men who are also extremely determined. Faults that may not figure into their media descriptions when disaster strikes. In fact, money and determination are the subtheme of this book. Breashears makes it clear how much money figures into Everest climbs -- corporate sponsorship, individual "purchase" of place on teams, the increased sale of climbing permits which overcrowd the mountain, the need of guides to try and deliver what their clients have paid for, and the cost of work and constant travel on Breashears' relationship. In fact, the scene that really hit home with me in describing the failure of his marriage was not one of Breashears' departures on a long, dangerous expedition, but rather his description of spending his few days at home answering and making phone calls, sending and receiving faxes, and methodically laying out his gear across the living room floor days in advance. Breashears doesn't come across as a cruel person, just a focused one with the most extreme case of wanderlust. It's clear that he likes and honors women. It's also clear that he likes and honors Everest. It seems that his most successful relationships triangulate with the mountain, and minus that, falter. His craft, photography, really plays second fiddle to climbing in this book. That is, until the end portion, when the IMAX camera becomes a focal point of an Everest summit. Nonetheless, the technical information is enlightening and interesting. I really recommend this read.
Summary of High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places
For generations of resolute adventurers, from George Mallory to Sir Edmund Hillary to Jon Krakauer, Mount Everest and the world's other greatest peaks have provided the ultimate testing ground. But the question remains: Why climb? In High Exposure, elite mountaineer and acclaimed Everest filmmaker David Breashears answers with an intimate and captivating look at his life.For Breashears, climbing has never been a question of risk taking: Rather, it is the pursuit of excellence and a quest for self-knowledge. Danger comes, he argues, when ambition blinds reason. The stories this world-class climber and great adventurer tells will surprise you -- from discussions of competitiveness on the heights to a frank description of the 1996 Everest tragedy.
David Breashears has climbed Mt. Everest four times. For this, he is known as a world-class mountaineer. A lengthy career in documentary filmmaking--including the Imax film, Everest--has earned him wide acclaim and four Emmy awards. For this, he is known as one of the elite cinematographers in his field. But his new autobiography, High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Other High Places, proves he is more than a climber and a filmmaker; he is also an able writer.
Breashears has no lack of good material. We follow him through the stunning backdrops of Yosemite, Europe, Nepal, and Tibet, brushing up against triumphs and tragedies along the way. And while the nuts and bolts of his adventures are entertainment enough, his knack for building suspense and employing understated drama makes his autobiography read like a novel: "The morning was sunny and calm, and Rob looked as though he'd lain down on his side and fallen asleep. Around him the undisturbed snow sparkled in the sun. I stared at his bare left hand ... I wondered what a mountaineer with Rob's experience was doing without a glove."
Breashears also likes to remind his audience of humble beginnings surmounted: his early climbing days when he was known as "the kid," and a winter he spent sleeping under a sheet of plywood during the Wyoming oil boom when he was called "the worm." But mostly he documents his filmmaking career and climbing passion, both of which he approaches with an obsessive fervor. Readers interested in either pursuit will find High Exposure a fascinating traverse across the spine of the world. --Ben Tiffany
Adventurers & Explorers Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Adventurers & Explorers Books
Aaronsohn's Maps: The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle Eastby Patricia Goldstone
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2007-09-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton's Ross Sea Partyby Kelly Tyler-Lewis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-03-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops:
Voyages and Discoveries: Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discoveries ofthe English Nat (Penguin English Library)by Richard Hakluyt
Penguin Classics; Published: 1972-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurerby Patrick French
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2004-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.37
Price in other shops:
The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bearsby Nick Jans
Dutton Adult; Published: 2005-07-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
View from the Summitby Edmund Hillary
San Val; Published: 2000-05; School & Library Binding; Book
Best price: $26.90
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everestby Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston Dewalt
St Martins Pr; Published: 1997-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops:
Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditionsby Charles Gallenkamp
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2002-03-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.98
Price in other shops:
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesiaby Elizabeth Gilbert
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.99
Price in other shops:
The Oregon Trail (Penguin American Library)by Francis Parkman
Penguin Classics; Published: 1982-12-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.16
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Himalayan Quest: Ed Viesturs Summits All Fourteen 8,000-Meter Giantsby Peter Potterfield
National Geographic; Published: 2009-05-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.58
Price in other shops:
The Last Place on Earth (Modern Library Exploration)by Roland Huntford
Modern Library; Published: 1999-09-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.32
Price in other shops:
The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna--the World's Deadliest Peakby Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Crown; Published: 2011-10-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.91
Price in other shops:
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountainsby Jon Krakauer
Lyons Press; Published: 2009-02-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.67
Price in other shops:
Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everestby Beck Weathers
Random; Dell; Published: 2001-11-06; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.69
Price in other shops:
Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Seasonby Nick Heil
Holt Paperbacks; Published: 2009-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.62
Price in other shops:
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everestby Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 1999-07-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.16
Price in other shops:
No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaksby Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Random; Broadway; Published: 2007-11-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops:
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disasterby Jon Krakauer
Random; Anchor; Published: 1999-10-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.19
Price in other shops:
K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountainby Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Broadway; Published: 2010-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.90
Price in other shops: