Beyond the Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest [Hardcover]

Stacy Allison (Author), Peter Carlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1993

The first American woman to reach the summit of Everest recounts her ascent, describing the grueling training she endured, the constant danger of the climb, close calls, and the pressing threat of death. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On September 29, 1988, Allison stood atop Mt. Everest, the first American woman to reach the summit. Her achievment was doubly gratifying since it came on the heels of a failed attempt in 1987, defeated by the weather. With Carlin ( Brave New Bride ), Allison recounts her introduction to serious climbing in such places as Zion National Park, Yosemite, Mt. McKinley, Ama Dablam in Nepal. For her, caught in an abusive marriage, climbing was more than a challenge. It was freedom. Establishing a construction business, she worked to raise money for expeditions and continued to climb. Her account of the 1988 expedition affords a glimpse into the world of big-time international climbing; her own experiences reveal admirable courage and determination. This year, Allison is leading an expedition to K2. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Nail-biting mountaineering wins out over soap-operatics in this absorbing tale of a woman conquering internal and external mountains. On September 29, 1988, Allison became the first American woman to stand at the peak of Mt. Everest. But her training began decades earlier, when she tried rock climbing in Utah's Zion National Park (``everything I learned electrified me'') and was instantly hooked. Here, with the help of Carlin (Brave New Bride, 1992 paperback), she grippingly describes her subsequent apprenticeship for Everest, with arduous steppingstones in Yosemite, Mt. McKinley, Pik Kommuninizma in Russia, and Ama Dablan in the Himalayas. The terrors pile up--blizzards, avalanches, dead companions--but the exhilaration of the ascent never fades. ``Climbing is how I express myself,'' Allison declares, and indeed she finds meaning largely through upward movement, confessing that if forced to choose between husband and Everest, she would head for the hills. Nonetheless, she values her love relations and relays them in schoolgirl detail: ``We lay there on our backs, talking about the stars....I was thinking: He's going to kiss me.'' The aim of this awkward dear-diary stuff seems to be to link true romance (which Allison finds with second husband David; her first turns out to be a wife-beater) and the attainment of mountain summits. No matter- -the action on the slope is what counts, and once up--especially above 19,000 feet, in the ``Death Zone''--Allison's account of mountaineering is as gritty as any. When she stands atop Everest and declares, ``I was wide open now, and I was aware of everything....I was standing on the top, looking down at the world,'' readers will join in her gusto. Allison plans a summer 1993 assault on the world's most treacherous peak, K2; this memoir, despite its unnecessary soapiness, will find its own place in that small pile of really first-rate mountaineering books. (Twenty-five b&w photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 282 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (T); 1st edition (August 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316034681
• ISBN-13: 978-0316034685
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,241,953 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SPELLBINDING- BEYOND THE ORDINARY, May 10, 2002

By 

Jim Morrison (Hansville, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest (Hardcover)

I try to avoid this platitude, but I could hardly put this book down. Among the many Mt. Everest tomes I have read this one is truly remarkable. This is an honest account of a monumental achievement in the face of enormous emotional, cultural and physical barriers. This exceptional person with an exceptional dream somehow found the ambition, skill and opportunity to achieve what no other American woman had done. She walked alone onto the highest summit in the world. But not without facing failures in the process. To simply say it took courage and ambition is an understatement. Yet, in her words, the summit itself was ephemeral and gone in an instant. It is apparent that in the end what is important to Stacy Allison is the pleasure of living and experiencing. Climbing is just her means of doing that. Her message is, "Look beyond the ordinary. There is always something more."
I highly recommend this book. It is a great story and well written by Stacy Allison and Peter Carlin.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THE FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN TO SUMMIT MOUNT EVEREST..., August 19, 2000

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Beyond the Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest (Paperback)

This is an easy reading account of Stacy Allison's quest to climb Mount Everest, and in doing so, becoming the the first American woman to successfully summit.

The book chronicles her introduction to mountain climbing, as well as her own personal demons. When going into some of the personal details of her life outside of mountain climbing, the book stalls, as the tawdry details are not particularly noteworthy, nor interesting to anyone except, perhaps, Stacy. While she may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, however, she sure is one of the pluckiest.

When it moves on to the mountaineering aspects of her life, there are enough interesting details to delight any climbing enthusiast. The descriptions of the two Everest expeditions with which she was involved, including the one in which she reached the summit, are intriguing enough to thrill any Everest junkie.

The traveling, the mountaineering elite with whom she was in contact, the sherpas, and the day to day business of being on an expedition, are all vividly described, providing an engrossing chronicle of her experiences.Written in a breezy, conversational tone, this book is sure to delight many readers.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read and good information, June 15, 2000

By 

m. a. liebert (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest (Paperback)

Here is a very well written book that provides you with excellent understanding of the climbs, and the climbers. Allison and Carlin are able to create with words scenes and situations, and the complex nature of both the climbs and the people who are drawn to climbing. When appropriate Allison provides brief explanations of equipment, traditions, and protocols; these help non-climbers know the little details that climbers take for granted,but because they are so concise and specific, climbers won't object. The material about her abusive husband does not detract from the narrative because it is so connected to her climbing life and need to climb. The only thing missing were more photographs and better photographs. Allison and Carlin know how to tell a tale that keeps you fully engrossed. Does anyone know if she ever got to climb K2?