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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
More fiction than fact., February 27, 1998
By A Customer
One unfortunate outgrowth of the success of excellent climber/writers such as Jon Krakauer, Greg Child and Bill Sherwonit is the publication of books such as Facing the Extreme, which seek to capitalize on the sudden interest in human suffering in the mountains. Facing the Extreme, by Ruth Anne Kocour and Michael Hodgson is filled with many seemingly small factual errors, which in the end add up, and made me question Ms. Kocour's journalistic credibility (though she is not a journalist by trade, it is still her responsiblity as an author to get it right). Though not a factual error, in the Author's Note, Ms. Kocour tells us that she has changed the names of her fellow climbers (with the exception of the guides) as she cannot "...speak for them or tell their story". What she dosen't come right out and tell you is that her portrayal of her fellow climbers is focused almost entirely on both their personal and mountaineering shortfalls. If we are to believe Ms. Kocour, she was the toughest, mentally and physically, the most skilled and the person with the fewest personality shortcomings. After elevating herself, she clearly had no choice but to change the names of her fellow climbers. My biggest problem with Facing the Extreme comes with the obvious lack of fact checking. Ms. Kocour states that Talkeetna is 70 miles from Anchorage, when it is approximately 114 miles. She also tells us that Denali is 250 miles from Talkeetna and the single engine Cessna made the flight to Denali Base Camp in 40 minutes, an obvious impossiblity. Denali is actually only 60 miles by road from Talkeetna. In addition, there are serious climbing factual errors as well, all the more shocking considering Ms. Kocour's oft repeated (in the text anyway) expertise. Ms. Kocour claims that while camped at high camp at 17,200 feet the climbers had now entered the "death zone". Actually, the "death zone" as it is known to climbers, begins at approximately 26,000 feet, nearly 9,000 feet higher than high camp on Denali. In fact, Base Camp on Mount Everest, where climbers spend close to 2 months at a time is at approximately 17,700 feet, some 500 feet higher that high camp on Denali. Ms. Kocour also states that she "...had been to 23,000 feet on Aconcagua", difficult to do since Aconcagua is 22,841 feet high, a seemingly small error, but an important distiction to climbers. If you want to spend money reading books by female climbers/explorers I suggest The Climb of my Life by Laura Evans, or Artic Daughter by Jean Aspen.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A CHILLING STORY ... BY A TALENTLESS WRITER..., September 6, 2000
This review is from: Facing The Extreme: One Woman's Story Of True Courage And Death-Defying Survival In The Eye Of Mt. McKinley's Worst Storm Ever (Mass Market Paperback)
This book, though poorly written, has a story to tell, though it could have been better told by someone who knows how to write. It is, however, an easy, quick read and moderately interesting. It does have some merit, in as much as it chronicles the author's ascent of Denali.
Most of the book is spent recounting the time during which she and her team mates were trapped on Denali at 14,000 feet, caught in one of the most severe storms on record which saw eleven people perish. Her description of the horrendous weather conditions and sub zero temperatures, which pinned her team down for a period of about two weeks, is graphic, though repetitious. She was lucky to have been with two experienced guides who knew what they were doing. This is undoubtedly one of the main reasons she and her team mates survived their ordeal.
Disconcerting are her repeated racist references to Asian climbers. Her comments are unworthy and make her sound ignorant. It cannot help but affect one's opinion of her, and that opinion is unflattering. This is unfortunate, as she is a person one might otherwise admire for her pluck and stamina.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Extreme Ruth Ann, July 15, 2001
This review is from: Facing The Extreme: One Woman's Story Of True Courage And Death-Defying Survival In The Eye Of Mt. McKinley's Worst Storm Ever (Mass Market Paperback)
This is an as-told-to tale of enduring a ferocious storm for almost two weeks on North America's highest peak, Mt. Denali (Mt. McKinley). It is a tale worth telling for Denali, while not a technically difficult mountain to climb, is known for the worst storms on earth. The first problem is Ms. Kocour's exaggerations and misinformation diminishes the very story she wants to tell. The second problem is Ms. Kocour herself. Her own words make her sound like an arrogant, bigoted,self-satisfied, braggart. Her lack of charity toward her teammates and fellow climbers is breathtakingly insensitive. She has a fawning regard for her professional guides and an almost girlish awe of chance meetings with elite climbers Jim Wickwire and John Roskelley, but a rare good word for her fellow amateurs. The author continually refers to being trapped in the "Death Zone," a height where humans cannot acclimate to the altitude, and the human body deteriorates. This "Zone" is above 26,246 feet. The camp where the author was stranded was 8,000 feet below this extreme. To give a comparison, Everest's base camp (the beginning of the climb) is higher than the camp at which Ms. Kocour was stranded. The entire route her party took has fixed lines, and they were roped to their guides at all times during their climb. It was not what anyone would call an intrepid, daring ascent. The "ledge" where her team bivouacked accommodated six tents, a ranger hut and a large medical station, more resembling a mall parking lot than a ledge. The descriptions of the storm are good, and it is easy to imagine the fear, the claustrophobia, and the boredom of being confined to such close quarters in the monstrous elements for such an extended period of time. It is a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks Denali is a walk in the park. It is not. I awarded the second star for Ruth Anne's self-portrayal of a lady you'd love to see get her comeuppance. Makes you want to see a book by one of her teammates describing the trials and tribulations of climbing with Ruth Anne.
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