A review by nadiajohnsonbooks
Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain by Jennifer Jordan

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

This book gives important insight into the lives of five women whose motivations I will never completely understand. While no biography is truly impartial, Jordan presents portraits of each mountaineer that neither condemns her for her choices nor makes her out to be better than she was. They emerge flawed and more relatable for it. Like Jordan herself, I can't really wrap my head around the specific way in which the void calls to high-altitude mountaineers, but I at least feel like I have a better notion of why these five women in particular followed their friends, their obsession, or their love into the Death Zone. Wanda Rutkiewicz came across as particularly sympathetic to me, and I appreciated this glimpse into her storied and troubled life.
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