What do you think?
Rate this book
Addicted to Danger: A Memoir
Adventurist Jim Wickwire, an eyewitness to glory and terror above 20,000 feet, has braved bitter cold, blinding storms, and avalanches to become what the Los Angeles Times calls "one of America's most extraordinary and accomplished high-altitude mountaineers." Although his incredible exploits have inspired a feature on 60 Minutes and a full-length film, he hasn't told his remarkable story in his own words -- until now.
Among the world's most fearless climbers, Jim Wickwire has traveled the globe in search of fresh challenges. He was one of the first two Americans to reach the summit of K2, the world's second highest peak, the toughest and most dangerous to climb. But with the triumphs came tragedies that haunt him still. During several difficult climbs, he was forced to look on helplessly as four of his climbing companions lost their lives. A successful Seattle attorney, Wickwire climbed his first mountain in 1960. Deeply compelled by the thrill of risk, he pushed himself to the limits of physical and mental endurance for thirty-five years, before facing a turning point that threatened his faith in himself and his hope in the future. How he reassessed his priorities and rededicated his life -- to his family and his community -- completes a unique and moving portrait of one man's courage and commitment. Addicted To Danger is a tale of adventure in its truest sense.
Among the world's most fearless climbers, Jim Wickwire has traveled the globe in search of fresh challenges. He was one of the first two Americans to reach the summit of K2, the world's second highest peak, the toughest and most dangerous to climb. But with the triumphs came tragedies that haunt him still. During several difficult climbs, he was forced to look on helplessly as four of his climbing companions lost their lives. A successful Seattle attorney, Wickwire climbed his first mountain in 1960. Deeply compelled by the thrill of risk, he pushed himself to the limits of physical and mental endurance for thirty-five years, before facing a turning point that threatened his faith in himself and his hope in the future. How he reassessed his priorities and rededicated his life -- to his family and his community -- completes a unique and moving portrait of one man's courage and commitment. Addicted To Danger is a tale of adventure in its truest sense.
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
14 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
Read
July 31, 2011Meh, it was okay. The writing was nothing spectacular and the descriptions of the climbs were only interesting insofar as they added another viewpoint to other more eloquent portrayals.
There was also this rather uncomfortable thread that I'm not sure should have been included in the memoir. Throughout the book, Wickwire writes about loving his wife and his regret for constantly leaving her for the mountains, but we readers don't see evidence of this love, since nowhere does he depict her as anything more than the stock abandoned but stolid wife. Then, he spends his best writing lovingly describing a woman expedition partner whom he wants to abandon his wife for. There is closure only because the woman dies in a climbing accident, but how awful must it be to be the wife that has to play the modern day Penelope while Wickwire unsuccessfully chases his Circe, and then goes and tells the world about it?
There was also this rather uncomfortable thread that I'm not sure should have been included in the memoir. Throughout the book, Wickwire writes about loving his wife and his regret for constantly leaving her for the mountains, but we readers don't see evidence of this love, since nowhere does he depict her as anything more than the stock abandoned but stolid wife. Then, he spends his best writing lovingly describing a woman expedition partner whom he wants to abandon his wife for. There is closure only because the woman dies in a climbing accident, but how awful must it be to be the wife that has to play the modern day Penelope while Wickwire unsuccessfully chases his Circe, and then goes and tells the world about it?
May 8, 2019
Sometimes frightening in its detail, particularly of the accidents that he encountered and was involved in, Jim Wickwire's story of his mountaineering experiences is gripping and difficult to put down. It does taper away towards the end when he is retiring from, dare I call it, the sport but is still entertaining. Amongst his many achievements, he reached the summit of K2 but, despite several attempts failed to make the summit of Everest, much to his eternal regret. While all this was going on he continued to run his law practice but perhaps his greatest achievement was to keep a hold of his long-suffering wife, Mary Lou, and to father five children.
August 23, 2009
I was propelled by the excitement of the first half of the book into the funk of the second. Unable to stop reading a book that far completed I drug my ass through to the finish. While having it's suspense, it's tragedy and it's triumphs the book wasn't very well written and at times failed to spur my imagination.
Conclusion, Wickwire climbs mountains much better than he writes about climbing mountains.
Conclusion, Wickwire climbs mountains much better than he writes about climbing mountains.
June 21, 2012
I read this book in one sitting. And thought the whole time I didn't like it. But I realized I didn't like Jim Wickwire. I am familiar with some of the other climbers he writes of, and continue to find this addiction to danger fascinating which may have enhanced my overall satisfaction with the content. However, I would like to see more perspective from the family members. And I wonder, if Wickwire reveals he is this much of a jerk in his own memoir that is seemingly guarded at points, what is her really like? That Wickwire is an older climber offers an interesting perspective on the sport and attitudes through the years. If you are addicted to addicted to danger or climbing books, pick this up. Not sure? Start with Into Thin Air by Krakauer.
June 11, 2012
This book details two good climbing adventures. The rest are repetitous recounts of hanging out in base camps, who he likes and who bugs him. I was shocked at the disregard the author shows for his wife and children. He seems more addicted to himself than anything else. I came to the conclusion his wife preferred him to be gone for months at a time on his adventures, as a guy with this level of narcissism had to be hard to have around.
February 13, 2008
Don't climb with this guy. Most of his partners end up dead in the bottom of crevases.
August 5, 2015
Good mountaineering literature must be able to present selfish and vainglorious behavior as heroism. Since Wickwire does not know how to do this, he comes off as a self-centered jerk.
August 18, 2014
Almost gave it 4 stars, but deducted 1 because the author was just too arrogant.
January 13, 2009
Jim Wickwire writes that the title of his memoir, Addicted to Danger, came to him as he recalled his repeated promises to stop climbing and his inability to follow through, despite small children at home and the deaths of several companions. He admits that he climbed not only for the solitude, beauty and physical exertion, but also because "of an attraction to danger." Wickwire's book provides ample proof of the truth of those words. Was he addicted to danger? Judge for yourself.
In 1971, Jim Wickwire nearly died trying to climb Mount Ranier's Willis Wall. Only the heroic efforts of his climbing partner saved Wickwire's life. Wickwire was 31 years old at the time, with a wife and 5 small children at home. Wickwire had started climbing in 1960, a year in which he survived a 50 foot fall with only a fractured wrist. He writes that falling made him a more careful climber, but "also left me with a heightened attraction to danger."
So perhaps it isn't surprising that despite his close call on Mount Rainier, Wickwire became consumed with the desire to climb higher mountains. He was a member of the unsuccessful 1975 American expedition to K2. As he left to board the plane to Pakistan, his nine year old daughter whispered to him, "Daddy, don't get killed." The expedition was famously beset by all kinds of trouble, infighting among the members and a barrage of criticism when the members returned home.
Stung by the criticism, Wickwire decided to do an extraordinary climb to "shut the critics up." This was the genesis of his decision to attempt to climb Mount McKinley in 1976 by a new route, solo. His wife told him she was afraid for him every time he left on a major climb, and that he was on a "bloody ego trip." Wickwire had grossly underestimated the difficulty of the route, and at points, dangerously, he had to descend unroped. He decided his wife was right, doing the solo climb was an ego trip, and putting his life at such gret risk when he had five small children at home "was incredibly irresponsible and utterly foolish."
Nonetheless, when he was invited to join the 1978 American expedition to K2, he eagerly accepted, racing home euphoric to throw his arms around his wife in celebration. Shortly before this, a good climbing friend, Leif Patterson, was killed in an avalanche along with his 12 year old son and a 17 year old friend. Patterson had been a member of the 1975 K2 expedition, and was slated to go on the 1978 expedition.
To get ready for K2, Wickwire decided to climb in the Fairweather Range in Alaska along with 3 other members of the 1978 expedition. All four reached the summit and began to descend. About 300 feet below the summit, Wickwire heard a scraping sound, and turned to see Al Givler and Dusan Jagersky, who had roped together, sliding down the steep slope. Wickwire "watched in horror" as the two slid down the slope and disappeared into a gully. The 4,000 foot fall was unsurvivable. Wickwire was shaken because these friends had "died right in front of me." Nonetheless, he decided that he could not think of the expedition as a failure: "It had been a good -- even a great -- expedition. We were the first to climb Mt. Abbe and Peak 8440; the first to stand on their glaciers, their ridges, their summits, and I felt enormous satisfaction for what we had accomplished." The bottom line was that although his friends had died, and he had seen their "horrible remains," Wickwire did not want to stop climbing.
Wickwire successfully climbed K2 in 1978, wlthough he nearly died in the process, being forced to bivouac at 28,000 feet without food, water, a tent or a sleeping bag. Upon arriving home, he underwent surgery to remove a part of his lung and parts of two toes. He says after his surgeries, he seriously considered quitting climbing, but as his health improved, this resolve diminished.
Invited to join a 1982 expedition to Mount Everest, Wickwire happily accepted. He decided to get ready by climbing Mount McKinley by a new route up the Wickersham Wall. While he and Chris Kerrebrock, a 2 year old climber, were traversing a glacier, they fell into a deep crevasse. Wickwire's shoulder was broken, but he was able to climb out. But Kerrebrock was wedged into the crevasse headfirst, and despite Wickwire's strenous efforts, he was unable to free him from the cravasse. In what must surely be one of the saddest and most horrible of climbing deaths, Kerrebrock froze to death in the crevasse.
Again, Wickwire says he decided to stop climbing: "From now on I would live differently, my priorities would change -- I owed it to those I loved." He even went so far as to tell his wife he was going to withdraw from the Everest expedition. Of course, he didn't. Instead, to get in shape he climbed Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. On that expedition, he met and started to fall in love with a young female climber, Marty Hoey, "the most competent woman climber I had ever known." Hoey, who was also a member of the 1982 Everest expedition, would end up being Wickwire's climbing partner on that trip, in his eyes, Chris Kerrebrock's "logical successor."
At 26,000 feet, Wickwire was going to take some rope to two companions slightly higher up. Hoey stepped back to get out of his way. He heard a sound and turned to see her "pitching backward, head-down the icy slope." Then he "watched in shock and disbelief as she slidat an ever increasing speed, disappearing into a tunnel of mist, over a huge ice cliff, and onto the glacier six thousand feet below."
Hoey had made an inexplicable, fatal error, having failed to secure the belt of her waist harness. Wickwire decided to continue his quest for the summit, but was unsuccessful.
After this, Wickwire says he once again considered calling it quits, but "in spite of Marty' death, I did not expect to look back on the expedition with negative feelings." Although he did not summit, he felt that "we had given it all we had."
In 1984, Naomi Uemura, a famous Japanese climber and adventurer, and a close friend of Wickwire, died on Mount McKinley after having climbed it solo in winter. Wickwire participated in the search for his body. Also in that year, Wickwire again attempted unsuccessfully to climb Mount Everest. At the age of 44, for the first time in his life, he felt his physical powers beginning to wane, and could no longer keep up to the younger members of the expedition. He told his wife he was never going back to Everest.
A year later, one of Wickwire's law partners was murdered, together with his wife and two children, and Wickwire began to think about death and risk once again. He writes that after losing so many friends in the mountains, "mountain summits seemed an absurb target for my ambitions, yet I could not break the habit." He concluded that he climbed mountains not because he wanted to die, but because "I wanted to know death, to understand it."
Despite his declining physical prowess and gossip in the climbing community that he was "bad luck," Wickwire continued to climb, including 1989 and 1990 expeditions to Kanchenjunga and Menlungtse in the Himalayas. When he returned from Menlungtse, he determined to end his climbing career, and even cancelled the climbing coverage on his life insurance policy. Nonetheless, when asked to join an Everest expedition set for 1993, and secretly decided return to climbing. To prepare, he planned to climb Mount McKinley in 1992. Thus, Wickwire was on McKinley during that famously deadly season, which saw 12 climbers perish on the mountain. Wickwire and his partner took part in several rescues of injured climbers, as well as the recovery of the bodies of some of the dead.
Wickwire's attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1993 was not successful. He decided he was no longer willing to spend the time necessary to climb 8,000meter peaks, and instead climbed smaller peaks, being unready to hang up his crampons.
After reading Wickwire's book, and many other climbing memoirs, I have decided that climbers are not ordinary people. Their books almost uniformly paint portraits of driven, self-consumed and selfish people who seem to be unable to appreciate life except by risking death. Although they all seem to realize that it makes no rational sense to risk one's life to stand on top of a mountain, they nonetheless continue to undergo great pain, risk life and limb, brush off the deaths of companions and give short shrift to the feelings of and fears of their families and friends. Despite their best efforts, no climber has ever been able to make a case that what they do is really worth the price of the effort. In that regard, Wickwire's memoir is just as unconvincing as all the rest, and succeeds only in telling an exciting story and convincing the reader that he is a little bit crazy.
In 1971, Jim Wickwire nearly died trying to climb Mount Ranier's Willis Wall. Only the heroic efforts of his climbing partner saved Wickwire's life. Wickwire was 31 years old at the time, with a wife and 5 small children at home. Wickwire had started climbing in 1960, a year in which he survived a 50 foot fall with only a fractured wrist. He writes that falling made him a more careful climber, but "also left me with a heightened attraction to danger."
So perhaps it isn't surprising that despite his close call on Mount Rainier, Wickwire became consumed with the desire to climb higher mountains. He was a member of the unsuccessful 1975 American expedition to K2. As he left to board the plane to Pakistan, his nine year old daughter whispered to him, "Daddy, don't get killed." The expedition was famously beset by all kinds of trouble, infighting among the members and a barrage of criticism when the members returned home.
Stung by the criticism, Wickwire decided to do an extraordinary climb to "shut the critics up." This was the genesis of his decision to attempt to climb Mount McKinley in 1976 by a new route, solo. His wife told him she was afraid for him every time he left on a major climb, and that he was on a "bloody ego trip." Wickwire had grossly underestimated the difficulty of the route, and at points, dangerously, he had to descend unroped. He decided his wife was right, doing the solo climb was an ego trip, and putting his life at such gret risk when he had five small children at home "was incredibly irresponsible and utterly foolish."
Nonetheless, when he was invited to join the 1978 American expedition to K2, he eagerly accepted, racing home euphoric to throw his arms around his wife in celebration. Shortly before this, a good climbing friend, Leif Patterson, was killed in an avalanche along with his 12 year old son and a 17 year old friend. Patterson had been a member of the 1975 K2 expedition, and was slated to go on the 1978 expedition.
To get ready for K2, Wickwire decided to climb in the Fairweather Range in Alaska along with 3 other members of the 1978 expedition. All four reached the summit and began to descend. About 300 feet below the summit, Wickwire heard a scraping sound, and turned to see Al Givler and Dusan Jagersky, who had roped together, sliding down the steep slope. Wickwire "watched in horror" as the two slid down the slope and disappeared into a gully. The 4,000 foot fall was unsurvivable. Wickwire was shaken because these friends had "died right in front of me." Nonetheless, he decided that he could not think of the expedition as a failure: "It had been a good -- even a great -- expedition. We were the first to climb Mt. Abbe and Peak 8440; the first to stand on their glaciers, their ridges, their summits, and I felt enormous satisfaction for what we had accomplished." The bottom line was that although his friends had died, and he had seen their "horrible remains," Wickwire did not want to stop climbing.
Wickwire successfully climbed K2 in 1978, wlthough he nearly died in the process, being forced to bivouac at 28,000 feet without food, water, a tent or a sleeping bag. Upon arriving home, he underwent surgery to remove a part of his lung and parts of two toes. He says after his surgeries, he seriously considered quitting climbing, but as his health improved, this resolve diminished.
Invited to join a 1982 expedition to Mount Everest, Wickwire happily accepted. He decided to get ready by climbing Mount McKinley by a new route up the Wickersham Wall. While he and Chris Kerrebrock, a 2 year old climber, were traversing a glacier, they fell into a deep crevasse. Wickwire's shoulder was broken, but he was able to climb out. But Kerrebrock was wedged into the crevasse headfirst, and despite Wickwire's strenous efforts, he was unable to free him from the cravasse. In what must surely be one of the saddest and most horrible of climbing deaths, Kerrebrock froze to death in the crevasse.
Again, Wickwire says he decided to stop climbing: "From now on I would live differently, my priorities would change -- I owed it to those I loved." He even went so far as to tell his wife he was going to withdraw from the Everest expedition. Of course, he didn't. Instead, to get in shape he climbed Mount Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America. On that expedition, he met and started to fall in love with a young female climber, Marty Hoey, "the most competent woman climber I had ever known." Hoey, who was also a member of the 1982 Everest expedition, would end up being Wickwire's climbing partner on that trip, in his eyes, Chris Kerrebrock's "logical successor."
At 26,000 feet, Wickwire was going to take some rope to two companions slightly higher up. Hoey stepped back to get out of his way. He heard a sound and turned to see her "pitching backward, head-down the icy slope." Then he "watched in shock and disbelief as she slidat an ever increasing speed, disappearing into a tunnel of mist, over a huge ice cliff, and onto the glacier six thousand feet below."
Hoey had made an inexplicable, fatal error, having failed to secure the belt of her waist harness. Wickwire decided to continue his quest for the summit, but was unsuccessful.
After this, Wickwire says he once again considered calling it quits, but "in spite of Marty' death, I did not expect to look back on the expedition with negative feelings." Although he did not summit, he felt that "we had given it all we had."
In 1984, Naomi Uemura, a famous Japanese climber and adventurer, and a close friend of Wickwire, died on Mount McKinley after having climbed it solo in winter. Wickwire participated in the search for his body. Also in that year, Wickwire again attempted unsuccessfully to climb Mount Everest. At the age of 44, for the first time in his life, he felt his physical powers beginning to wane, and could no longer keep up to the younger members of the expedition. He told his wife he was never going back to Everest.
A year later, one of Wickwire's law partners was murdered, together with his wife and two children, and Wickwire began to think about death and risk once again. He writes that after losing so many friends in the mountains, "mountain summits seemed an absurb target for my ambitions, yet I could not break the habit." He concluded that he climbed mountains not because he wanted to die, but because "I wanted to know death, to understand it."
Despite his declining physical prowess and gossip in the climbing community that he was "bad luck," Wickwire continued to climb, including 1989 and 1990 expeditions to Kanchenjunga and Menlungtse in the Himalayas. When he returned from Menlungtse, he determined to end his climbing career, and even cancelled the climbing coverage on his life insurance policy. Nonetheless, when asked to join an Everest expedition set for 1993, and secretly decided return to climbing. To prepare, he planned to climb Mount McKinley in 1992. Thus, Wickwire was on McKinley during that famously deadly season, which saw 12 climbers perish on the mountain. Wickwire and his partner took part in several rescues of injured climbers, as well as the recovery of the bodies of some of the dead.
Wickwire's attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1993 was not successful. He decided he was no longer willing to spend the time necessary to climb 8,000meter peaks, and instead climbed smaller peaks, being unready to hang up his crampons.
After reading Wickwire's book, and many other climbing memoirs, I have decided that climbers are not ordinary people. Their books almost uniformly paint portraits of driven, self-consumed and selfish people who seem to be unable to appreciate life except by risking death. Although they all seem to realize that it makes no rational sense to risk one's life to stand on top of a mountain, they nonetheless continue to undergo great pain, risk life and limb, brush off the deaths of companions and give short shrift to the feelings of and fears of their families and friends. Despite their best efforts, no climber has ever been able to make a case that what they do is really worth the price of the effort. In that regard, Wickwire's memoir is just as unconvincing as all the rest, and succeeds only in telling an exciting story and convincing the reader that he is a little bit crazy.
June 4, 2025
Thinking this was a book solely dedicated to Wickwire's K2 expedition, I was a little let down with what I actually got.
The section detailing the expedition is one of the shorter parts of this book. Instead, Wickshire goes through every expedition he's ever been on, relationships with other mountaineers, and his personal relationship with ice climbing. Unfortunately, he jumps back and forth chronologically frequently, making the timeline hard to track at times. The writing style is simplistic and straightforward, which while isn't necessarily a bad thing, creates repetition (especially in later parts of the book). You will read Wickshire swearing off climbing and improving his familial relationships at least a dozen times, and in the next sentence he's discussing the plans for a new expedition (with the grammar and vocabulary being almost word for word.
While not terrible, this book dragged on for 100 pages too long. Seeing the motivations behind a man so obsessed with tackling these mountains was interesting, but I feel that going so in-depth with each failed expedition, opinions on a climbing companion, and frequent non sequiturs take away from the overall appeal of this book.
The section detailing the expedition is one of the shorter parts of this book. Instead, Wickshire goes through every expedition he's ever been on, relationships with other mountaineers, and his personal relationship with ice climbing. Unfortunately, he jumps back and forth chronologically frequently, making the timeline hard to track at times. The writing style is simplistic and straightforward, which while isn't necessarily a bad thing, creates repetition (especially in later parts of the book). You will read Wickshire swearing off climbing and improving his familial relationships at least a dozen times, and in the next sentence he's discussing the plans for a new expedition (with the grammar and vocabulary being almost word for word.
While not terrible, this book dragged on for 100 pages too long. Seeing the motivations behind a man so obsessed with tackling these mountains was interesting, but I feel that going so in-depth with each failed expedition, opinions on a climbing companion, and frequent non sequiturs take away from the overall appeal of this book.
May 22, 2017
I agree with both the positive and the negative reviews of this book.
Go figure!
Go figure!
June 26, 2010
About Jim Wickwire's life and mountain climbing career, this autobiography takes you though the many years and many climbs that defined his life. At points, a friend reminded me that he is of a different generation -- his early views of marriage were jarring, at the least. But this book got better with each page, as Wickwire grew and changed with each mountain expedition. Like other mountain climbing books I've read, I'm again shocked by the risks and tragedies that occur. How could anyone in their right mind embark on such a risk venture, with a family back home? Yet I'm fascinated by the unrelenting desire to continue to climb the next mountain, to overcome the next challenge, to push yourself to the limit and come back. Wickwire acknowledges the risks and time again promises to stop climbing -- but as the aptly named book indicates, he never did.
September 7, 2007
Some of the most gruesome accident detail I've read in any climber bios, this book really makes you question the sanity of mountaineers. It's gripping, for sure, although the author is a completely selfish man in a way that many of us are probably both disgusted by and envious of. The main drawback is that writing style is your basic sports writing; simplistic and with a lot of faux-modesty and passages like "After the tradgedy on Mt McKinley, I vowed to climb Everest in his memory" or whatever. If you're not really into this genre, skip it and read "Touching the Void" instead.
September 4, 2009
rereading this one. it's amazing what this man has been through yet he can't stay away from the mountains...
after reading this book, i'm glad i'm not addicted to danger.
a great read if you're interested in trying to figure out what drives people to do high elevation climbing. through out the book he is asking himself this question with every climb he attempts. i loved it, and even though at times i wanted to reach into the book and strangle him...the first american to climb k2 deserves some props.
after reading this book, i'm glad i'm not addicted to danger.
a great read if you're interested in trying to figure out what drives people to do high elevation climbing. through out the book he is asking himself this question with every climb he attempts. i loved it, and even though at times i wanted to reach into the book and strangle him...the first american to climb k2 deserves some props.
October 17, 2019
Some beautiful images depicted both in photos and words. Some horrific scenes. Ultimately, while I love and am fascinated by the topic of climbing, I felt similarly to how the author’s wife felt having to listen to replays of expeditions: “like a baseball player’s wife having to review each play in excruciating detail.”
April 10, 2008
Lots of cool climbing but overall sad and too reflective.
March 18, 2020
Tough to review this, the writing is pretty stiff and not very descriptive but damn.... Jim Wickwire had a hell of a mountain climbing career.
O.K. I will be honest Jim Wickwire comes accross as a very hard nosed, old school, jackass... no really he is pretty hard to like but his accomplishments and adventures are pretty incredible. Over 30 years Jim mountain climbed some of the hardest climbs known to man and he lives to tell the tale. His friends on the other hand did not share his luck. He watched 4 of his friends die and another close friend was murdered at his home. Jim Wickwire was a beast on the mountain but his family life was what seemed to suffer most, which he recognizes.
Overall it was a thrilling book but the stories should have been edited better and described with more details.
O.K. I will be honest Jim Wickwire comes accross as a very hard nosed, old school, jackass... no really he is pretty hard to like but his accomplishments and adventures are pretty incredible. Over 30 years Jim mountain climbed some of the hardest climbs known to man and he lives to tell the tale. His friends on the other hand did not share his luck. He watched 4 of his friends die and another close friend was murdered at his home. Jim Wickwire was a beast on the mountain but his family life was what seemed to suffer most, which he recognizes.
Overall it was a thrilling book but the stories should have been edited better and described with more details.
September 19, 2023
While all accomplished Himalayan climbers are somewhat full of themselves — which you expect from the drive to suffer to the extent they do — Wickwire’s memoir came across even more so. Maybe it wasn’t in the amazing stories he related but in the way that he told them. After recently reading several of Bernadette MacDonalds books that were written in the third person and Ed Viestur’s No Shortcuts to the Top, Wickwire’s tone struck me. Maybe it is also the lawyer in him that made is prose a little insensitive? Anyway I warmed up to him in the last third of the book. This could have been that he admits that his extensive daily journaling was the source he referred to as he wrote and that he matured in his outlook on his climbing and his family and his life and this humanness came though.
May 16, 2020
Jim Wickwire is the genuine article when it comes to mountaineering, from his Himalayan accomplishments to his pioneering Alaskan ascents.
In this wonderful memoir, he recounts what he (rightfully) terms an addiction: his relationship with risk over a decades-long pursuit of the world’s most exclusive summits.
The price he’s paid throughout his life to be on the cutting-edge of alpinism is at times ghastly, but the book paints a picture of a man who’ll gladly pay the steepest price, time and again, for his love of mountains.
In this wonderful memoir, he recounts what he (rightfully) terms an addiction: his relationship with risk over a decades-long pursuit of the world’s most exclusive summits.
The price he’s paid throughout his life to be on the cutting-edge of alpinism is at times ghastly, but the book paints a picture of a man who’ll gladly pay the steepest price, time and again, for his love of mountains.
April 27, 2020
sad story....you would think losing so many friends he would have had an epiphany (also not spending quality time with his family of 5 kids - there for conception)
Smart enough guy...sometimes smart isn't enough. He is still alive at 79...lucky him!
Also, the murderer that was said to appeal his death sentence, did...and is now serving life in prison...that happened after the book was published (I looked it up)
Smart enough guy...sometimes smart isn't enough. He is still alive at 79...lucky him!
Also, the murderer that was said to appeal his death sentence, did...and is now serving life in prison...that happened after the book was published (I looked it up)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2019
I've read better books about mountaineering, but this wasn't bad. He certainly had a string of unlucky mishaps in which climbing partners perished, but that goes hand-in-hand with this dangerous activity. I gladly trek to the tops of these frozen peaks from the comfort of wherever I am reading and leave the scary stuff to them.
June 1, 2022
Having always been an outdoorsy person, I was drawn by the cover and my love for autobiographies/memoirs. However this could easily fall into the category of love story between climber and mountain, the constant draw to reach new peaks and push further than ever before is facinating to me. One of the better books I've read.
June 24, 2024
I am an obsessive compulsive, goal addicted individual. Jim Wickwire is to the 10th power of me. His goal on the climbs described it "get to the top." Always. Until he realizes he can't. I felt the same about running. So now I walk and my family is my highest priority. So is his.
Wick is a complex individudal. Reading "Addicted to Danger" helped me better understand him. And myself.
Wick is a complex individudal. Reading "Addicted to Danger" helped me better understand him. And myself.
July 31, 2025
When at the Stehekin ranch, you can read an entire
book from their library in two days. However I thought the writing was all over the place, and the selfishness and antiquated marriage dynamic bothered me. Terrible awful deaths every page it seemed. Alas- it did make me want to climb a glacier again though :)
book from their library in two days. However I thought the writing was all over the place, and the selfishness and antiquated marriage dynamic bothered me. Terrible awful deaths every page it seemed. Alas- it did make me want to climb a glacier again though :)
September 29, 2018
Interesting memoir that attempts to explain one man's motivation to willingly put himself in very dangerous environments time after time to satisfy some primal need. Also a good, albeit selective, look into the small club of elite high altitude mountaineers.
March 19, 2019
Jim Wickwire was definitely addicted to danger...sometimes I fear recklessly addicted. I moreso say recklessly in terms of his life decision to continue climbing, opposed to his actual skill of climbing, after stating MULTIPLE times that he was going to stop. It got annoying after awhile. It seemed to take more of a toll on his family or at least that’s how it was expressed in his writing. It seemed his career in climbing put a strain on his relationship with his wife and kids. It must be addicting if you are willing to miss out on so much family time! There were several very sad stories about lost lives while climbing making known just how dangerous it is!
August 16, 2019
It starts really well and if often a gripping page turner. I feel it lost its way a little by the end. Often the stories lack interest and are too personal or not relevant to the core of the story. This means it starts to jump around quite a lot.
September 9, 2025
Good book, I got a bit bored by the end. it's quite repetitive. I loved the begining and middle though and really like the K2 bivy story as it was interesting to hear the first hand account of such a famous story
August 5, 2019
Never ceases to make me quirk an eyebrow, how people are crazy enough to put themselves in danger over and over again.
April 17, 2020
Read this one for 2nd time - harrowing stories from one of the 1st Americans to summit K2.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews