Good but not great. Brearshears gives us a pretty raw look at what the life of a mountaineering photog is all about and it reads clear and quick. Nothing outstanding here but at least it is an honest potrayal of his life and experiences. It is one of the easier mountaineering books to enjoy without the heavy disaster angles found in the more popular reads of this genre, just a straight forward telling of his life.

Really fantastic. Soulful book about David Breshears connection and drive to be in the mountains and share the experience with others through cinematography. Loved how he pursued his path, however winding and didn't care to 'fit in'.

Excellent!

I really enjoyed the writing style of this book. Breashears is a natural storyteller with a good knack for detail, knowing where to linger and where to be succinct. His pacing is incredible and he knows the precise things to focus on, meaning that the reader is never left wanting. I think it's the perfect marriage between writing talent and a cinematographer's mind: it all plays out in a way that's so easy to imagine and follow.

He is also very honest, and strikes the right balance between humility and also trusting his experience enough to assure the reader that he is an authority on the subject. Some people can be too blasé and arrogant; others so humble that I end up wondering just why I should trust what they're saying. Breashears gets this just right, accepting his talents but unafraid to critique himself, give credit to those he believes to be his betters, and hold himself accountable for his mistakes and the things he should have done better. He treats everybody he mentions with respect, regardless of any history or personal differences between them; he is also very fair to his then-wife, Veronique, which was such a relief.

I have complained several times that in books by men with consuming passions, their wives are often cast villainously. This is not intentional, so far as I can tell -- the wives are usually portrayed as being exasperated, and I feel their husbands are trying to be appreciative and it's supposed to be played as light-hearted and fond exasperation, but everyone tends to fail spectacularly. Their wives come across as unsupportive, annoying, and getting in the way of their fun. Even when it's acknowledged that these women are left abandoned at home for months at a time, often with children, worried sick about their husbands who are off taking life-threatening risks, the husbands often lack any real empathy for that position and excuse it because it's their passion.

Look, I get having dangerous and selfish passions. Mine is war journalism. I can't judge. But I don't pretend like this choice doesn't affect my loved ones, and I wouldn't be offended if someone said it was too much. Breashears is refreshingly fair to Veronique, understanding her plight and his role in it, and portraying her with empathy and taking the blame for where he allowed their relationship to fail. He treated her very unfairly, even cruelly at times, but as this is a memoir about every aspect of his passion, the consequencess it had upon his marriage are part of that story. He establishes himself as trustworthy just from this admission and portrayal alone.

As for his passion itself, it's a joy to read about. Breashears makes the mountains come alive; he really manages to pin down just why people feel compelled to risk their lives and put themselves through hell over and over. His respect for nature, and for the people who make his work possible; his humility and love for what he does, and his incredible talent both as a climber and as a director and cameraman, is abundantly evident and fascinating to read about. He comes across as a real solid guy, worthy of the praise I've read of him in books by other mountaineers. He's not perfect, but he's intelligent and empathetic and willing to learn, and his book is a brilliant insight into an interesting and impressive community.

Alex Awards 248 of 260 (95%); Alex Awards 2000 8 of 10. Next up: re-read Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer (Alex Award 1998) paired with The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest by Mark Synnott (NPR Books We Love - For Sports Lovers - 2021).

I really enjoyed the chapters on the 1996 Mount Everest trip, because I have read other books about the same season, and it was good to get the perspective of another climbing group. Although I have immense respect for Breshears' climbing abilities and intellect, I didn't get into the descriptions of his rock climbing and ascents of other mountains. The writing was very factual and kind of dry - no emotions or suspense, sort of like a textbook.

This is the 4th or 5th book that I have read that touches on the 1996 tragedy on Everest. While the book is primarily the auto-biography of David Breashears he spends a lot of time writing about Everest because it is a big part in his life. I found his description of the events of 1996 to be the most interesting part of the book but it was all enjoyable reading.

At times I wanted to tell him how stupid he was. This was primarily regarding his marriage. One way to interpret his telling of the story for his marriage is that Veronique was primarily a conquest for him. After he got married he seeded to loose interest and focused primarily on film-making. Over and over again he cut promised time with his wife short to tackle some other project.

While only a small part of the book the chapters on the 1996 Everest disaster were very enlightening. A lot of mistakes were made by Scott and Rob but they each payed the ultimate price for their mistakes. David did what he could to assist the survivors and that is commendable.

I really want to see the IMAX movie Everest now that I have read this book!

Having read a fair number of reviews for High Exposure, most of which were quite favorable, I eagerly expected a different experience than the book delivered.

The overall flow of David Breashears’ personal biography was interesting and provided insight into behavioral aspects of a life that led to his being one of the top mountaineers in the world. But for me, the book lacked sufficient substance until towards the end; when he related the tragic experience and fatal events of the 1996 Everest IMAX filming expedition. This section was personal, griping, and stirred up emotions even though I had previously read Into Thin Air and other similar accounts.

Prior to that section the book seemed more like brief separated, but concurrent, snap shots in time, and in many cases the reader was left to fill in and imagine the details. Not to say there weren’t a few instances where one could picture the vertical world of precariously hanging onto a slab of rock straight up hundreds or thousands of feet from safety. However, for me they were too few.

Once having finished the book I was also led to wonder what has happened to this individual in the ensuing timeframe. I plan to Google the subject. Seems an interesting follow-up having read how single minded and focused he was on his own ambitions and agenda and of his disastrous marriage attempt. What has time and loss of youth changed or influenced?

Spends significant time on the '96 Everest disaster, despite being a memoir. I'm sure these events played a large role in Breashears' life, but it really makes one believe this book wouldn't have been written were it not for the public's fascination with the '96 Everest disaster.

The book contains several interesting facts about Everest and route descriptions not found in other memoirs. You can tell Breashears is a true climber.

One of many mountaineering books I'm reading at the moment (because they come so cheap in Nepal), this one is really a good read, gripping and entertaining. David Breashears tells his life story, a typical "mountain maniac" story - from climbing in Colorado as a teenager to his numerous Everest expeditions. He was able to make his passion his profession: He works as a high altitude cameraman and has famously shot the IMAX movie "Everest", in 1996, just when the catastrophe described by Jon Krakauer happened. Breashears was actively involved in the rescue of some of the people who were stranded on the mountain. Also interesting: Mountaineers often have big problems with their private life, and Breashears is no exception ...

We picked up this book to get another perspective of the 1996 disaster on Everest. A good read, esp if you know a little about climbing (which is about all I know.) Brashears is a good writer but not nearly as great as Jon Krakauer who also wrote about that same season on Everest, Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster>.

I'm a sucker for mountaineering books. I would never climb Everest. I like a valley a lot more than I like mountains. I'm always bored above the treeline. But I'm so glad others want to get to the top.