K2 : One Woman's Quest for the Summit

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Heidi Howkins, the first American woman to summit K2 -- the world's second tallest peak and one of the most challenging mountains -- recounts her accomplishments in the thrilling K2: One Woman's Quest for the Summit. K2 is framed around a long drive she has with Hiddle, a hitchhiker she picked up just south of the Canadian border, whom she tells about her journey to the summit. Howkins's mesmerizing story emerges as an important addition to the genre of mountaineering tales, providing a woman's perspective on the forbidding peak of K2, a mountain with steeper slopes and more treacherous weather than Mount Everest.

While Howkins is powered by an intense drive to succeed on the mountain -- and to return home safely to her young daughter -- she repeatedly states that "fear is the tool that keeps climbers alive." Fear does play a large role in Howkins's life; she writes about the hallucinations climbers have as a result of oxygen deprivation, the number of colleagues who have lost their lives in pursuit of their dreams, and the dangers that come from climbing in frigid temperatures. Her striking accounts of these extreme situations and the unpredictable challenges that pop up while climbing are jaw-dropping throughout.

Howkins also enraptures readers in what may seem like mundane details to other climbers. She answers some of the obscure questions about how she goes to the bathroom (in a little bottle), gets water (she melts it down), and what she eats (one meal was horse fat and mustard).

An inspiring story of an exceptional woman, K2 leaves readers in awe of all of Howkins accomplishments, both on K2 and on the other peaks she has climbed. (Soozan Baxter)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In 1997, Howkins applied for a permit to climb Kanchenjunga, or K2the "savage mountain"the second highest peak in the world at 8,616 meters (or 28,267 feet) and in many ways more difficult than Everest. "It is the ultimate goal for many climbers, and reaching the summit is akin to winning the Olympic gold," writes Howkins, the first American woman to reach the base of K2's summit peak. The first three-quarters of this fascinating but uneven book trace Howkins's journey from planning to final descent. Howkins's photographic recall of events, places and details of what climbers endure yields statements like "glove fuzz and sheer exhaustion and carbon monoxide poisoning from cooking inside a tent are not the main obstacles to eating.... the higher you go, the more your appetite diminishes." Unlike some swooning climber-authors, Howkins doesn't romanticize her struggles. ("I once heard someone define Himalayan climbing as the `art of suffering.' I understand the suffering part, but I'm not sure I fully grasp the artistic challenge.") But her book is flawed by the structural conceit of telling her tale to a hitchhiker. The strength of her story (including an increasingly psychotic husband-climbing partner) is better served when she simply tells it, sans hitchhiker, in the last quarter of the book, which recounts an unsuccessful attempt up K2 in 2000. However, this very personal account of the climbing experience, including the rampant sexism that pervades the climbing community, is an important addition to the ever-growing genre. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW. (May) Forecast: To coincide with the release of this book about adventure from a woman's point of view, CNBC will air a National Geographic Explorer special entitled Surviving K2, followed by coverage by the networks. Meanwhile, the author will drum up sales in a cross-country tour with stops in Boston, Seattle, New York, Denver, Berkeley, Boulder and Portland, Ore. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.