I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the 1975 American K2 Expedition. The wonderful photos and the well-written text were some of the best I've encountered in mountaineering literature.

I liked how Galen Rowell interspersed his account of the expedition with earlier accounts of K2 attempts, some successful and some not. They gave an interesting insight into the history of this tough mountain and the people who have climbed it. The journal excerpts from various 1975 team members were insightful and intriguing. I am now going to start on "The Last Step" by Rick Ridgeway, about the 1978 American K2 expedition. Apparently, this team wasn't without their problems either.

I found it ironic, that after all the team discussion about the possibly negative implications of having a woman (Dianne Roberts) on the team, especially the wife of the leader, that she really figured very little in the disputes and quarrels. It was also ironic that there was still a lot of dissention and miscommunication amongst the team members on the actual expedition, even after the team expelled Alex Bertulis from the original team, due to lack of confidence in his ability to be a team player.

Read it, you won't be disappointed. I gave it a four because I found the first couple of chapters hard to get into. But once the '75 team is formed, it picks up quickly and then is quite hard to put down.

Unfortunately, Galen Rowell, the author of this book and a well-known photographer, recently was killed in a plane crash near his home in California with his wife.

The laundry in this expedition gets aired in this book. This seems to be the book that the movie K2 was based on. A lot of the characters and events are similar. Rowell gives a lot of historical background from other expeditions to K2. Rowell writes this novel from his perspective, but he also uses the diaries from the other expedition members to tell the story. He also gives the perspective from the porters point of view, however, it seems like he is mostly guessing what the porters feel and think and I've never like that from a ethnographic point of view. Considering the trouble the expedition had, it's a wonder that any of them wanted to return. Some of the best photographs of the region are shown. Galen is great photographer.

Most mountaineering books chronicle successful ascents. Rowell offers an even more fascinating study in the failure of an expedition plagued by titan egos: famous mountaineers proving themselves no gods. The photography is... breathtaking!

This is not a photography book. It's more for mountaineering buffs. But, his photos are included in this book.

some of the stories here are in shorter form in his other books, but the full accounts are in this book as well as new ones. most of the pictures in the book aren't in his other books, which makes it worthwhile in itself. unlike his more recent work, this is more like his older work with climbing and skiing stories. sad that these are among Galen's final writings.

This is an amazing book. Some of the best color I've ever seen in one of Galen Rowell's books and with the new essays and new photographs, I'm really glad I bought it even though I already have the original book that came out in the 70's. This is basically a completely new book! Hats' off to the publisher!

As far as Bay Area hiking books go, this is the best one I have for the East Bay. However, it is not my *favorite* hiking book. There are a lot of parks & trails that you just won't find in regular Bay Area hiking books. I like that. BUT, I found the trail descriptions long winded & sometimes confusing. What I often do with hikes from this book is find the park & get a real map to sort out my route before I leave my car. Then I leave the book in the car. I just use it as a sort of pre-hike guideline for mileage & scenery, etc.

I'm glad I picked this up. It got me motivated to get out and enjoy the stunning beauty of the East Bay. The book has only a general description of the plant and animal life you would expect to see, so if you're into that you may want to bring an Audubon guide along for more detail. I only wish he was more descriptive about the steepness of some of these trails!

I'm really enjoying this book. I've been hiking in the east bay for long enough that I was in something of a rut and this book is really breaking me out of it. It has good coverage of the area, with one or two good trails per park instead of concentrating in any given area. The hikes are mostly loops, and the distances and difficulty measurements are more realistic than some of these books where the author seems to be trying to show how tough they are. The trail descriptions are actually interesting and there are nice maps, again unlike most hiking books.

Galen Rowell has taken 12 great photos of mountains, but is is so sad to see what printing company has done.
Every picture, I mean really every picture - there is white spots, blurring colours.
You can still enjoy the photos, but it could be so much better if they only had printed in better quality and better paper.
The calendar is great - lot of empty space to write, if you prefer that.

I'm a big fan of Galen Rowell's images and nature books in general, but this one has a twist. Sprinkled throughout this book are photos (not by Rowell) of Ford Trucks placed in the wild....If you want to get a great Galen Rowell book on Amazon, try Mountain Light, Bay Area Wild or Poles Apart.

This lovely gift book is very inspirational. I am a fan of Galen Rowell's work and these photographs are particularly striking. Makes me want to travel, climb a mountain and get adventurous. Photography buffs and those into outdoor adventure sports will appreciate the scenic views.