Getting to the Top Is Optional No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs (With David Roberts) Broadway Books, 2006, $23.95
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Backcountry Bookshelf Getting to the Top is Optional No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs (with David Roberts) Broadway Books, 2006, $23.95 Review by David Hirning climber to pay for such an expensive die. Wickwire’s own memoir, Addicted hobby. After years of networking and to Danger, is full of sudden, dramatic When I was growing up in Seattle in self-marketing, Viesturs eventually be- death—both he and Viesturs have lost the 1970s and 1980s, one of my friends comes one of the few who can actually many friends and climbing partners to was the son of famed mountain climber make a living from climbing. the mountains. Jim Wickwire. I didn’t know much about Even though the reader knows from I don’t think I’m alone in this morbid his dad’s unusual hobby until the elder the start that he ultimately succeeds (and fascination. Into Thin Air would not have Wickwire’s picture appeared on the survives), Viesturs’ story is still chock-full been such a runaway bestseller if it was front of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, simply the story of a very exciting, showing him sitting in a wheelchair successful Everest expedition. By the after returning from a treacherous same token, climbing the world’s 14 ascent of K2. Jim had made it to the highest peaks wouldn’t be such a big summit, becoming the first American deal if it wasn’t incredibly dangerous to reach the top of the world’s second as well as extremely difficult. highest mountain, but paid the price The general reader might think with respiratory injuries and the that Mount Everest, as the highest partial amputation of two toes. peak in the world, would be the most This was the thought that kept challenging to scale. But that distinc- coming back to me while I read No tion belongs to Annapurna, which Shortcuts to the Top, the recent takes the life of half of the climbers book by another world-renowned who attempt it. After two frustrat- local climber, Ed Viesturs. In 2005 ing, failed attempts, Viesturs finally Viesturs reached the summit of An- conquers the beast for Number 14. napurna to become the first Ameri- By contrast, he’s strolled up Everest can to conquer all 14 of the world’s six times now. 8,000-meter-plus peaks, a quest that Through it all, Viesturs constantly took him the better part of 18 years. reminds us that he is a very cautious Amazingly, the Bainbridge Island climber, one who won’t hesitate to resident managed to accomplish this turn around if he doesn’t like the while keeping all of his fingers and conditions—even with the summit in toes. He also did it without the use view. Viesturs was on Mount Everest of bottled oxygen—clearly, when during that fateful storm in 1996, it comes to high-altitude climbing, but he had decided against trying for Viesturs is pretty much Superman the summit that day because it just without the cape. (Certainly the book of close calls and hairy moments. As didn’t “feel right.” He even excori- drives that point home frequently, but I with the huge bestseller Into Thin Air, ates himself for a risky-but-successful suppose one can forgive the narrator’s Jon Krakauer’s dramatic retelling of a summiting of K2, feeling he’d made a heroic portrait of himself. As they say, “It 1996 Mount Everest storm that left five stupid decision to go for it. ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”) people dead, the book’s narrative pulls Viesturs writes throughout the book This well-written, compelling book you along effortlessly. You might say that that his chief climbing mantra is, “Get- takes us from Viesturs’ boyhood on the Viesturs’ story keeps you on the edge… ting to the top is optional. Getting down is elevation-challenged Great Plains to his of your seat. mandatory.” With a wife and three young early climbing and guiding experiences About halfway through No Shortcuts children waiting at home, the fact that in the Cascades and his tireless efforts it hit me why books like this are so grip- he always made it down safely is perhaps to “complete the set” of the 14 highest ping. Quite simply, it’s because climbing his greatest achievement of all. mountains in the world. Along the way the world’s highest mountains is one the reader learns not only about how of the most dangerous things humans David Hirning is a writer from such climbs are achieved, but also how do, and even the best climbers often Seattle. difficult it is for a young, non-affluent March 2007 WASHINGTON TRAILS.