This book was hard for me to rate. The topic is fascinating. The people that are the focus of this book are/were truly awe-inspiring. However, it was extremely difficult for me to acclimatize (see what I did there) to MacDonald's writing style. For a good chunk of the beginning of the book, I was having a hard time keeping people and facts straight. There's an avalanche (yes, I went there) of information that necessitates note-taking and charts, and as a casual reader, I neither had the time nor the energy for that. This book falls somewhere around a 3.5/5 for me, but points are due and rounded up for making me feel! A lip quivered! In all seriousness, parts of this book (notably the second half) were amazing and had me unable to put the book down. The Polish climbers were truly incredible and in a league of their own. The details of their climbs had me thinking, "That sounds terrible," more often than not. I'll end my review with a quote by Wanda Rutkiewicz that I feel is ever-appropriate: “We should not presume to judge those who seek out danger on the world’s highest places or demand to be told the meaning of what they do. Simply, when they pay the ultimate price for their passion, we should remember them…” Read more