Rating: 
Summary: Not a classic, but one very entertaining read...excellent
Review: .... I've climbed Denali and Kocour's book is the best account of climbing that mountain from a "real" person's point of view than any. No book on the market tells it like it is and in as esciting and readable a manner as Extreme. As for Kocour's ability, I know Robert Link, a world class guide who is written about in Extrme, and not only does he like this book, but he says Kocour is a solid female mountaineer who he'd climb any mountain with. I'd recommend her book to anyone, whether climber or not, as a superbly written example of what can go wrong and what it takes to make the summit of any mountain.
Rating:
Summary: Not a classic, but one very entertaining read...excellent
Review: .... I've climbed Denali and Kocour's book is the best account of climbing that mountain from a "real" person's point of view than any. No book on the market tells it like it is and in as esciting and readable a manner as Extreme. As for Kocour's ability, I know Robert Link, a world class guide who is written about in Extrme, and not only does he like this book, but he says Kocour is a solid female mountaineer who he'd climb any mountain with. I'd recommend her book to anyone, whether climber or not, as a superbly written example of what can go wrong and what it takes to make the summit of any mountain.
Rating: 
Summary: If you read only one book about climbing....
Review: ...well, I'd say read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. Or even Boukreev's The Climb or David Brashears High Exposure. I thought this book would be interesting because it's a different summit and a female climber. It does move at a brisk pace but it's definitely not up to par with the other titles.To be fair, Kocour is not a professional writer. And while her interment on Denali might have been suspenseful for her, considering most of it was spent tentbound in a blizzard where she never appears to be in real danger there's not a lot going on for the reader. She is also (as other reviewers have observed) rather ungenerous towards her fellow climbers. Even her tentmate, the only one she seemed to get along with, gets described as "pleasant to look at, though not particularly handsome." And despite the assistance of a professional writer, some of the wording is awkward bordering on hilarious. Example: on complimenting one of her guides upon reaching the summit, she calls him "a tribute to his family's storied mountaineering history." Who talks like this-hands? Her ethnic stereotyping of some Korean climbers is also tiresome. Still, it's an easy read and it does have some interesting detail about Denali and climbing in the death zone. And it's one of the few mountaineering books that I've seen written by a woman. So, read at your discretion.
Rating:
Summary: Very well-done (but poorly proofread) story of climbing.
Review: Kocur's descriptive writing is so good, I had to put on 2 wool sweaters, turn up the thermostat to 75 degrees F, and curl up in a blanket to get through her book. Krakauer writes well of the horror of failed mountain climbing, but Kocur seems to catch the essence of what it is like to be stranded in a fatal storm high up a mountain better. The one truely off-putting part of this book is the dreadful proofreading. Typoes and "spellcheckos" are all too common, distracting from Kocur's prose. I can only hope that, some day, editors will go back to editing. For me, as a woman, the most delightful part of the tale was how Kocur was treated as a woman. Once she got on the mountain, her gender seemed to be a non-issue, with one small exception. She did not make a big deal of this, and I found it refreshing to read a book about women and men where gender games didn't happen. I give this book to my library patrons who liked Krakauer's _Into Thin Air_, those who read about women and those who enjoy well-told tales.
Rating:
Summary: The bittersweet summit
Review: A must read for anyone preparing to climb. You will understand that mountainclimbing is not for the flippant, the hurried, the unprepared. This extraordinary story tells of the extreme suffering endured to achieve the summit. You learn about the death zone and about what happens to the body at various altitudes. An excellent adventure story for both men and women.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Story; A Bad Book
Review: After reading "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer and "The Climb" by Anatoli Boukreev with G. Weston DeWalt, both of which were excellent and engaging books, I turned to "Facing the Extreme" by Ruth Anne Kocuour. Like Krakauer and Boukreev, Kocuour found herself high on a dangerous mountain in a blizzard. Like them, she survived, while others met their death. Unlike Krakauer and Boukreev, she did not write a great book about her experiences. The biggest problems with this book are the constant flow of bad jokes and puns, the constant put-downs of several of her climbing companions, and her total lack of modesty. Krakauer opines in his book that who lived and who died was a matter of chance, and that he could have easily died. Kocuour repeatedly tells the reader that it was her skill and planning that made her a survivor. I found her and her book to be obnoxious and less than entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Juvenille writing style.
Review: After reading Jon Krakauer's book, I had to have more! Unfortunately, I choose Ruth Ann Kocour's book, which reads like an account of a life-threatening adventure as told by an adolescent. Although she is not a journalist, her recounting of conversations do not ring true and all the "voices" sound alike. And while I appreciated some insight into how bodily functions are handled on the mountain, a more mature attitude would have gone a long way.
Rating: 
Summary: An accurate portrayal - a fun read!
Review: Both my wife and I read this book in almost one sitting; it was very compelling. Her descriptions of the cold, the storm, and her relationships with the other climbers were right-on. This is the world of climbing as it exists today, and it gives excellent insite into the high-mountain disasters of recent history. I've climbed over 100 mountains higher than 11,000 feet--several of which were winter ascents and required technical ability. I'm not a professional mountain climber and I've never hired a guide. But I probably will hire a guide some day. To put this book down because the author isn't a full-time mountain climber is weak. I have a professional life outside of mountain climbing. That's the reality of modern climbing--is my experiance somehow less authentic because of that? This author was there, her writing is compelling, I enjoyed it immensely!
Rating:
Summary: A refreshingly different perspective
Review: Facing the Extreme, by Ruth Anne Kocour was a welcome addition to my growing collection of mountaineering stories. Unlike most 'epic' stories, I found this one to offer a little more insight and to be a little more personal than other stories I've read. I didn't pick up this book because it was a woman's story, although it WAS nice to read a mountaineering adventure from a woman's perspective. I suppose that it's inevitable that I would find myself identifying more strongly with a woman but I think that men will really get a lot of of this story too. I suspect that we all share similar dreams, fears & emotions where mountains are concerned. Kocour just seemed to be able to articulate the experience better than most. That being said, there is certainly no shortage of technical information... much of which was new to me. I enjoyed learning some of the inner workings of a high altitude mountaineering expedition. Facing the Extreme was more comprehensive than most books in this regard. The challenges and tragedy faced by this group during the worst storms to ever hit Denali were incredible. What I particularly appreciated was the way that (I believe) she remained true to the experience and did not get caught up in sensationalizing the event. Even more surprising is that I never felt that the story was too slow. Detailed descriptions of day after day of being trapped in a cramped, frozen tent could have been almost as torturous to read as it was to experience but not in this book. Rather than breezing over these parts of the adventure, Kocour described with honesty I'm not sure I could summon, her personal struggles, thoughts & feelings & her observations of team mates' experiences. This is a wonderful, personal & unpretentious story. Anyone who has experienced the seductive, almost gravitational pull of a mountain will appreciate & enjoy the experience of reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Sorry, if you liked this book you don't understand climbing.
Review: I agree that the book is a egocentered blurt that only was successful b/c of the popularity of "Everest" stories. I can easily imagine her friends and husband, "Oh Ruth Anne, you really MUST write your book..." Of course the ghost author was limited by her journal and interviews, I hope he was well paid. I have climbed all the mountains she writes about (and more) with women as equals, and Ruth Anne's story is incredible in its simplistic vision of "women" and "mountains". I agree that she slights her climbing partners, deifies the guides (hey, nice guys, I know them by reputation), but she is yet another "drone" with a big enough check book to "climb" the mountain. Everest, Ruth Anne? Okay, but I hope Dawa Sherpa has a tight rope that day. Sorry folks, if you think this is a book about climbing, it isn't, it's a book about a woman who pays people to take her climbing. Okay, it was a good story at times, especially re: the storm bound days at 14, but if you want passion and commitment try Sacred Summits by Boardman!
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