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  • No Shortcuts to the Top

  • Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks
  • By: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
  • Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
  • Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (356 ratings)
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No Shortcuts to the Top cover art

No Shortcuts to the Top

By: Ed Viesturs,David Roberts
Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
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Summary

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 18 years, Ed Viesturs pursued climbing's holy grail: to stand atop the world's 14 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.

No Shortcuts to the Top 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 the beliefs that shaped this most perilous and magnificent pursuit.

©2006 Ed Viesturs and David Roberts (P)2006 Books on Tape

What listeners say about No Shortcuts to the Top

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Are you an 8000 m mountain nerd?

Breathtaking achievement. If like me you are obsessed about anything to do with mountain climbing you will love this. If you're not a 'mountain nerd' you will probably find this too long and too dry. Alot about this book is repetative, after all its a collection of stories about climbing 8000 m climbs, in essence its the same story over and over. Not for everyone but i loved it.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Ed Viesturs has absolutely no humility

I have enjoyed many many climbing books, but this is one I will not listen to again.

The writer was so annoying. He is always talking about how other people behaved dangerously and if something bad happens on the mountain it’s their fault and Ed would never do this of that.

His attitude towards women throughout I found particularly upsetting. He only ever comments on womens attractiveness, not their high altitude achievements. And they all throw themselves at his feet, Especially galling was the story of how annoying a women climber was who he claimed begged to sleep with him shortly before she died. I can’t imagine how upsetting those chapters would be for her family.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Insight into an elite world

This book lets you see into the elite world of extreme mountaineering and the challenges faced by its top people. Not just the challenges of reaching the peaks time after time but seeing and hearing their loved friends chewed up or killed, as well as considering their spouses and children. There is a new perspective on the Everest disaster which is worth hearing if you have read books about it. The only negative

was that the narrators tone and phrasing took a little while to get used to but stick with it as you adjust after the first chapters.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Inspiring book

Great book, especially for a keen climber that want to do more mountain climbing.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing and inspiring

This book is a brilliant and engaging account of one man and his quest to climb all the higest mountains... utterly inspiring and amazing

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Sometime the problem IS you.

The author repeatedly says that he has a character fault which meAns that he assumes it’s his fault if someone he’s close to is upset. But if that person is your wife and the reason is that you keep on climbing mountains, it might just be you…

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic

an inspiring and humble account of 1 man's goals , well written serious with some qwerky humour

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

love the book

I had to finish the full book in one day from start to end.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent insight into the world of 8000ers

Fantastic look into the mentality of one of the most accomplished mountaineers of all time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ed Viesturs what an achievement

The story this book tells is captivating from the start. What Ed Viesturs has achieved in his life is truly amazing. From listening to the books he seems to tell it like it is with all emotion laid bare.

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