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This is a good read, well written, and I agree with the 4-5 star reviews here so I'll keep it short. Too much time is spent on the personal conflicts between the climbers, it seems like that's half the book at times, and even though that got tiring, it's still a very hard to put down book. There are plenty of beautiful photographs which portray the difficulty of the mountain.
Great book so far, only 2 chapters in. Excellent writing takes you right to the heart of the trip. Highly recommend it.
Throughout this, the team is increasingly divided by jealousy, conflicting egos and mistrust as the time to determine the chosen few for the summit bid grows closer. I've bought several other books on K2 and various expeditions there. First the short version: Written by Rick Ridgeway (one of the summiters), this is a detailed, well-written account of the hardships, team conflicts and eventual triumph (though almost at the cost of their lives) of the 1978 American K2 expedition; with the best color photos of the mountain, the climbers and the stages of the route taken I've seen in any of the K2 books I've read so far.The longer version:Not too long ago I became fascinated with K2 with all of its contradictions: beautiful but malevolent, awe inspiring yet soul- and body-destroying to so many mountaineers who seem to be magnetically drawn to it again and again. The struggle of willpower and human frailty that accompany and burden each person as the climb gets harder and harder come through very clearly. This book is probably the best single account of one attempt, the 1978 American K2 Expedition. Attempting a new route, the climbers' battle at times seems unendurable- brutal ice and snow storms with sub-zero temperatures, climbing through near-vertical snow fields that can avalanche at any moment, ice walls, constant rock slides and ever-thinning air making each task increasingly exhausting as their bodies and minds slowly but inevitably deteriorate. By the time the last four able to endure have gotten within reach of the summit, I felt like I was there too--crawling seemingly on the very edge of space, motivated only by the will not to stop.Accompanying the well-written account are incredible photos of the mountain, showing tents pitched on tiny shelves carved from precipitous, knife-edged ridges; steep, seemingly neverending climbs with the summit always looking so near but still thousands of feet above; and some amazing shots of the final summit climb as the sun sets over the edge of the world.I've given away most of the others but this is one I'll keep. At full-price brand new, this book is well worth it-at less, you can't lose.
The Americans spent 67 days on K2 in 1978, nearly all above 18,000 feet, where the stresses of high-altitude living, of monotonous food, of confinement in tiny tents for day after day of frustrating storms ultimately give the mountain the last word.This is the story of how people, each day left more naked before themselves and before the mountain, overcame their individual fears, desires and disappointments to achieve a victory in which all could share. Five times, American mountaineers had tried to climb this mountain, and failed. Pakistan's magnificent K2 is known also as "The savage mountain." At 28,250 feet it is second only to Everest in height but first in difficulty to climb, endowed with the worst weather in the Himalaya. After four decades of failure, four Americans--Jim Wickwire, Lou Reichardt, Rick Ridgeway and John Roskelley--finally stood atop K2. Five men had died in these attempts.This is the story of the year that the Americans took care of their unfinished business. In 1978, under the leadership of Everest-veteran Jim Whittaker (himself trying K2 for the second time), fourteen men and women set out with a common goal: to work together to get somebody--anybody--to the top of K2.It is said about K2 that if you do not take the mountain in 45 days, you will not take it at all. Wickwire so savored the victory that he lingered too long and was forced to bivouac just below the summit, without food, oxygen or shelter in -40 degree temperatures and winds over 50 mph. His will to survive kept the mountain from claiming yet another life, but when the four came down, their emaciated physical condition told, more graphically than words, the cost of climbing "the savage mountain."
Their success in achieving their objective, despite the trials and tribulations which they endured, is testament to their fortitude in putting aside petty, mean spirited concerns and inter-personal conflicts. It further split the team, which was already divided over who would be chosen to summit, and eroded already existing friendships, while preventing new ones which might have otherwise developed.On top of all this, add in poor weather which caused them to spend about sixty seven days on the mountain, mostly at altitudes over eighteen thousand feet, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Not for the climbing, which is in and of itself gripping, but for the slice of human drama found in the deterioration of relationships amongst various members of the expedition. Without a doubt, this is one of the most riveting mountaineering books around.
Though this later proved to be true, at the time it was the source of much denial and hard feelings. At times, one is mesmerized by the bad behavior displayed at such high altitudes.
One would think that these expeditioners were on Melrose Place, rather than fighting for their place in mountaineering history on K2, one of the most perilous mountains in the world to ascend.Central to all the squabbling, was the love trangle which developed on the expedition, which was perceived by some of the expeditioners to be an extra marital affair in progress. These expeditioners, however, managed to become the first Americans to ascend K2.
This painstaking account of the first time summit of K2 by Americans is a must read for all climbing enthusiasts and readers of this genre.
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