4.5 stars. Something about a book can get under your skin and you just really enjoy it. I liked how each section was another chunk of Breashears' life and his experiences. You really saw the natural evolution of him going from rock climber to cinematographer to director. Reinforces that no one is stuck in one thing - keep your eyes and ears open and see what happens. I even liked hearing about living in Gillette, WY to work on an oil rig just to get some cash. He's met so many different kinds of people through his adventures and he has a pretty acute eye when it comes to sizing up people.

Thought he did a great job of translating how you can't let your ego drive your ambition when mountain climbing. If the mountain is saying no that day, you better listen or you could very well die. I had followed the disaster on Everest in May 1996 so reading his perception of the events as they unfolded was really interesting.

Thought the whole thing was simply a wonderful book.

This book is slightly different from the other mountaineering books I've read lately. It's more of a biography than a straight climbing/adventure book. I enjoyed reading about Breashears' childhood years, the start of his passion for climbing and his time spent in the oil rigs. From the book, it seems that Breashears is obsessed with Everest in particular. He returns to this mountain over and over again; yet he doesn't seem to feel the desire to the climb any of the other 8000ers. I specially enjoyed reading Jon Krakauer's foreword. I read it after finishing the book and it was interesting to hear from Krakauer's perspective what kind of person Breashears is.

The story of David Breashears from teenage rock climber to high mountain filmmaker Not only does he climb Mount Everest but he films it as well. He becomes involved in a high mountain rescue and returns the following year to climb again.

I became a big fan of Breashears after reading this book. He's one of the great american climbers, film maker and as it turns out a good writer.

Another great rendition and different viewpoint of the 1996 Everest disaster.

An interesting and at times poetic book about the life of David Breashears and his trips to Everest. Despite his confidence, Breashears never comes across as arrogant or cocky. Completely ignorant to mountain climbing myself, I found his technical descriptions of the climbing and filming process easy to understand, and the emotional descriptions of his experiences very riveting. I'm definitley glad to have picked up this book and look forward to checking out some of his films.

Not many people can film or climb.
He does them both at the same time.

Another book that's been on my list for awhile, and a great read about mountains and climbing. I had read other books about the tragedy of May 1996 on Everest and I really enjoyed this perspective from the team that helped rescue the survivors and then proceeded to go finish their mission and capture 65mm film for the IMAX feature. I still don't feel an urge to climb Everest after reading this book :-), but I do think it would be very interesting to hike to Base Camp.

David Breashears has made a name for himself as a methodical climber -- he isn't into dynamic leaps and jumps, but carefully plans each and every move as he scales mountain and rock. In a way, his autobiography "High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places" is the same. It's almost plodding and Breashears thoroughly examines his troubled childhood and the reasons that he is driven again and again to the challenges presented by Everest. I've read a lot of climbing memoirs and this one didn't particularly thrill me-- it was a little too bogged down in detail and became a really slow read. The final chapters about the 1996 tragedy on Mt. Everest were better, but came too late for me to truly enjoy the book. I came away admiring Breashers for what he has overcome but with a sense that he is a very unlikeable person. Is it possible for an autobiography to be too honest? That may be the problem in this case.

Being married to a photographer, my take on "High Exposure: An Enduring Passion or Everest and Unforgiving Places" is a little different than most. Yes, the mountaineering stuff is interesting, but to do it with tons of film equipment, setting up shots and re-shooting scenes was more fascinating to me. In fact, I found it crazy. Crazy as in too stupidly dangerous and should not be attempted by mere mortals. But like a train wreck in progress, I couldn't turn away and had to finish every last page.
Review by Becky Brinkley, author of Whatever Happened to Lil' Bobby Burton

It wasn't as compelling as I'd expected it to be. There are some interesting experiences chronicled within it, but I think the attempt (and failure) at delving more deeply into the author's/climber's psyche falls short: there's no real explanation given why he doesn't take his wife with him after the first couple trips, despite her obvious capabilities; and the long vignette about him working on the oil rigs that was supposed to make him understand his father better doesn't seem to have left any long-term impacts, as he acts like quite an ass at times in spite of knowing that that behavior was something his father did with him (and which he despised). I guess knowing is something, but again, the book feels confessional at times, but it never really hits home on those points.

Another example: he sees himself in Rob Hall's dead body, and he acknowledges that his film-making helps spread the appeal of Everest, but that's it. He even returns the next year to film some more. I mean, I know that us flat-landers are never really going to fully comprehend the mountaineer mentality, but I thought those examples where he tried to dive deeper fell flat.

There is one other bit that sticks out: he says he feels 'a part' of the 'Cliffhanger' story because of his time at Yosemite ... yet during those sections of the book, he quite clearly states that he and his climbing mates were outsiders (and regarded as such by the locals). So his personal connection to the events which inspired 'Cliffhanger' are tenuous at best.

The descriptions of climbing are well-done, though I actually wouldn't have minded more-detailed descriptions of some of his ascents. So overall, it was a satisfying read, but not much more than that.

Excellent!