High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2 (Adrenaline Books)

Editor Clint Willis collects some of mountaineering's finest writing in these tales from storied expeditions to grails like Everest and K2. Included are classic accounts of early American attempts on K2, by consensus the most daunting and ruthless peak to summit. Frank Smythe's telling of his 1933 attempt and Charles Houston and Robert Bates's from 1938 typify the wooly-knickered bravado of pre-war climbing. As counterpoint, Willis serves up Galen Rowell's sad and unadorned journal from the tempestuous 1975 failed expedition.

But there are other angles as well. Tucked in the middle of High is a gem told by an Everest widow, Maria Coffey, who traveled to the base of the mountain that took her husband and his partner: "I could pick out the ridge where Joe and Pete were last seen. The image blurred, tears were washing down my face and collecting in the jacket collar pulled tightly around my chin." In a collection of writing that soars it is a moving--and grounding--reminder of mountaineering's risks. --Tipton Blish