Customer Reviews

Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I could not put this book down. I knew nothing of alpine climbing to begin with, but became engrossed by the descriptions of the mountains that inspired the lives of the first five women who climbed K2. Myself, I am inspired by the strength of these women. One reviewer commented that the author seemed to have something against male climbers. I did not get this feeling, but rather felt that she was descrbing things as they were, with men often resenting and feeling threatened by these women's accomplishments. As other reviewers have said, these women were indeed complex. I was struck by the pattern of some of their deaths: continuing on when weather was bad for example, or underestimating their need for gear in their summit bids. But then, at 8,000+ meters in freezing temperatures and with little food to eat and scarce oxygen in the air, one can understand how decisions would be difficult! I suspect that these mistakes are not unique to women, but have claimed the lives of many a climber, male and female alike.

A wonderful read, an inspiration, and a tribute to the awesome power of nature and the strength and fragility of human life.

Jennifer Jordan writes a book that is impossible to put down. The subject is fascinating, and the story is very thoughtfully written and meticulously researched. Savage Summit is a tribute to women mountaineers who are clearly a unique breed. There is so little written about women in the world of high altitude mountaineering. Fascinating. Anyone who is an endurance athlete, a high achiever, or aspiring to be either must read Savage Summit!

This is a great read. It's not so much a mountaineering book (though it is that) as a book about women, compassionately, respectfully and truthfully portrayed. It's been weeks since I read it, and I still think about it often, still think about these amazing women. I know I'll read this book again. I keep talking about it, recommending it, wanting to give it as a gift.

With tears in my eyes, I have just closed the last page of Savage Summit - I have not read a book that has touched me so in a very long while - the author wrote so succinctly about all the phases of climbing that I felt that I was right there scaling the ice faces with the climbers - The poignancy
and the depth that she gave to each woman was so clear that you were able to have each and every one of them touch your heart - it is a perfectly marvelous book from every aspect - the details, the pain, the joy, and the depths of despair that these men and women went through is indelibly brought out by her writing - I cannot wait for her next book! - It is bound to be a best seller.

I couldn't put this book down. A sequence of histories of the women who have attempted to climb the world's second-highest mountain and most dangerous peak, K2, it offers an insight into the magnetic pull of achieving the near-impossible - why people give up comfort, security, friends and lovers to live at the literal and metaphorical peak of human existence. As Jordan portrays these women, they're pulled to K2 with the force of a drug, and it's totally understandable. As each woman passes through her pages, the picture deepens - and while I know I could never live life to the extreme that these women did, and pay the price they paid, I shared a little of that mystical intensity of experience through Jordan's fine writing.

There just aren't many books by women about high-altitude climbing so this one was a welcome addition to the pantheon. Jennifer Jordan (who is not herself an Alpinist) has written an interesting but slightly flawed book about the lives and deaths of the first five women to summit K2.

Everest may be the world's tallest mountain, but K2 with it's unpredictable weather systems, isolated location, avalanche danger (made more prevalent by global warming), technical complexity and colder climate is considered the more difficult climb. At the time this book was written, out of the nearly 200 people who had summited, only five were women who are all now deceased (there have been a few more women who have successfully summitted in the time since.) Three had died on the descent, the other two later on subsequent climbs. In the group were two Frenchwomen (Chantal Mauduit, Liliane Barrard), one Pole (the legendary Wanda Rutkiewicz) and two Brits (Julie Tullis and Alison Hargreaves.) Jordan has researched their lives as best as she could given some (particularly Barrard) left little in the way of autobiographical information. Along the way, they deal with sexism-both from the Pakistani government as well as, more depressingly, their male climbers-as well as certain advantages of biology (women seem to be less prone to high-altitude sickness and frostbite although the reasons for this are still speculative.)

Jordan has lots to say about sexism in mountaineering that was quite illuminating. Additionally, she is a worthy voice for these women who are not near as famous as their male counterparts. She clearly liked some of the protagonists better than others but she does make the effort to portray them as the complex, flawed and original women that they were. There is lots of information about the history of mountaineering both in the Karakoram and on Europe's summits and some great anecdotes about the women's early climbing experiences.

What was less enjoyable was Jordan's thesis that there is a curse on women who climb K2 (the mythology being that K2 is masculine energy as opposed to Everest's feminine energy.) With a 1 in 7 chance of a climber dying on descent, it is sad but not surprising some of the first women to climb K2 did not make it down. As many men in the book survive K2 only to die on a future summit as well (Michel Parmentier, Rob Hall and Benoit Chamoux to name a few), Rutkiewicz and Mauduit's later deaths are indeed tragic, but also not unexpected. High-altitude climbing is a hobby with high mortality rate. No mystical reasons need be sought and I think it does something of a disservice to the climbing community-female in particular-to spread superstition. As some other reviewers, I also found Jordan's habit of speaking of the dead's thoughts in their final days as disconcerting since some, such as Hargreaves who died in a storm on her descent from the K2, could not have left a record of her thoughts on making the summit. While Jordan mentions in the beginning she took "Perfect Storm" liberties, it was mildly off-putting.

Despite these complaints, I still did enjoy this book. It is for the most part well-written and gives attention to a chapter in mountaineering that is sadly marginalized. Read it and learn about the pull of the Death Zone, the history of K2, and the victories a small group of exceptional women experienced in a male-dominated sport.

Savage Summit outlines the lives of the first five women to summit the notorious K-2, a mountain renowned for its negative energy and misogynistic vibes. Jordan does a good job of bringing the internal lives of these unique women to life. Well paced and full of description, Savage Summit will keep you turning pages, as your emotions follow the triumps and tragedies of the climbers. High altitude climbers are truly a different breed, and this book lets us see into their souls.

As a female climber, I appreciate how Jennifer Jordan captures each woman's unique motivation, drive and spirit. Persuing elite climbing requires singlemindedness. Women often get judged harshly when they doggedly attempt to achieve previously male dominated milestones. Through Jordan's well researched work, one could not help but to respect and have empathy for each woman's chosen style. This was more than a trip journal logging climbs "bagged". .... an excellent read....

Jennifer Jordan has made the five pioneering women mountaineers who summited K2 come alive in this book. She has done her research and gets you inside their heads, and what it is like to be a high altitude climber, mother, & lover of life, through many interviews with surviving friends, families, & fellow climbers.
This is a tale for the ages, for both sexes, and armchair mountaineers will enjoy it as well as the seasoned climber. While I had previously read some accounts of two of the women, Savage Summit gives the whole story, and it brought me to tears more than once. Tears of joy experiencing a summit, & sadness at their loss. Highly recommended!

Jennifer Jordan has captured the danger, the journeys themselves, and the character and personality of the 5 women (now 6, I understand) who made it to the top of K2, all of whom ultimately perished in climbing accidents. She has delved into each woman's background, climbing experience, and psyche through interviews with friends and relatives of the women. It is apparent that Ms. Jordan spent a great amount of time in researching K2, as well as the other 8,000-meter peaks that she so vividly describes. This is truly a book that I couldn't put down.