Skiing Downhill by Wild Ties blue silk ties
May 15th, 2008
Skiing Downhill by Wild Ties blue silk ties
Anxious to tear it up on the slopes. We’ll now you can show your excitement with this beautiful 100% silk tie designed by Clinton Bohn featuring a light blue background and skiers making their way down the length of it.
-
No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks
This gripping and triumphant memoir follows a living legend of extreme mountaineering as he makes his assault on history, one 8,000-meter summit at a time.
For eighteen years Ed Viesturs pursued climbing’s holy grail: to stand atop the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.
A preternaturally cautious climber who once turned back 300 feet from the top of Everest but who would not shrink from a peak (Annapurna) known to claim the life of one climber for every two who reached its summit, Viesturs lives by an unyielding motto, “Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” It is with this philosophy that he vividly describes fatal errors in judgment made by his fellow climbers as well as a few of his own close calls and gallant rescues. And, for the first time, he details his own pivotal and heroic role in the 1996 Everest disaster made famous in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air.
In addition to the raw excitement of Viesturs’s odyssey, No Shortcuts to the Top is leavened with many funny moments revealing the camaraderie between climbers. It is more than the first full account of one of the staggering accomplishments of our time; it is a portrait of a brave and devoted family man and his beliefs that shaped this most perilous and magnificent pursuit.
Customer Review: Accurate account of the life of a premier Himlayan climber
Ed Viesturs has done a very brave thing. He has introduced the importance of safety into a world of alpha dogs all vying for the definitive issue unto the proverbial fire hydrant.
“Getting up is optional, getting down is mandatory.” This is Ed’s motto and is the greatest truism that could be pounded into the heads of climbers and mountaineers.
I failed to get down once. I did get out however. With some help from a helicopter. I wish I would have lived by Ed’s ‘motto.’ The mountains provide both an irresistible allure of challenge and beauty. The downside is that the environment often varies from unforgiving to deadly.
This is an enjoyable read about one very sane climber and his quest to survive multiple journeys to the top of the world. Safe to add that exceptional genetics played a role.
Customer Review: One of the best!
This book is super! Ed mixes his own adventures in with just enough history to give it some background. When I reached the end of the book, I was sorry that it had to end but was also sorry that Ed’s Endeavor 8000 had been completed. Hopefully, he’ll write more books about his mountaineering. I was also impressed by the man himself, who seems to have both integrity and humility. Well done!
Posted in Mountain Sports | No Comments »
