K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

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K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 1,213 ratings · 158 reviews

A thrilling chronicle of the tragedy-ridden history of climbing K2, the world's most difficult and unpredictable mountain, by the bestselling authors of No Shortcuts to the Top

At 28,251 feet, the world's second-tallest mountain, K2 thrusts skyward out of the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan. Climbers regard it as the ultimate achievement in mountaineering, with good re...more A thrilling chronicle of the tragedy-ridden history of climbing K2, the world's most difficult and unpredictable mountain, by the bestselling authors of No Shortcuts to the Top

At 28,251 feet, the world's second-tallest mountain, K2 thrusts skyward out of the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan. Climbers regard it as the ultimate achievement in mountaineering, with good reason. Four times as deadly as Everest, K2 has claimed the lives of seventy-seven climbers since 1954. In August 2008 eleven climbers died in a single thirty-six-hour period on K2–the worst single-event tragedy in the mountain's history and the second-worst in the long chronicle of mountaineering in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges. Yet summiting K2 remains a cherished goal for climbers from all over the globe. Before he faced the challenge of K2 himself, Ed Viesturs, one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers, thought of it as "the holy grail of mountaineering."

In K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain, Viesturs explores the remarkable history of the mountain and of those who have attempted to conquer it. At the same time he probes K2's most memorable sagas in an attempt to illustrate the lessons learned by confronting the fundamental questions raised by mountaineering–questions of risk, ambition, loyalty to one's teammates, self-sacrifice, and the price of glory. Viesturs knows the mountain firsthand. He and renowned alpinist Scott Fischer climbed it in 1992 and were nearly killed in an avalanche that sent them sliding to almost certain death. Fortunately, Ed managed to get into a self-arrest position with his ice ax and stop both his fall and Scott' s.

Focusing on seven of the mountain's most dramatic campaigns, from his own troubled ascent to the 2008 tragedy, Viesturs and Roberts crafts an edge-of-your-seat narrative that climbers and armchair travelers alike will find unforgettably compelling. With photographs from Viesturs's personal collection and from historical sources, this is the definitive account of the world's ultimate mountain, and of the lessons that can be gleaned from struggling toward its elusive summit.(less)

Hardcover, 342 pages

Published October 13th 2009 by Crown Archetype (first published 2009)

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Jan 08, 2012 Philippa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Viesturs writes with the same kind of pragmatism with which he climbs. Recounting so many expeditions in one book leaves him with little time to wax lyrical about the beauty of K2 or the ethics of mountaineering; instead, this is an account which brings together several different ascents (and attempted ascents), and manages to vividly capture the personalities and details (and, frequently, the mistakes) behind each one.

I really appreciated the personal note to this book. Viesturs strikes a good...more

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Sep 29, 2011 Heidi rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an exhilarating peek into a series of expeditions to climb K2, the mountain that has killed more climbers to date than any other mountain in the world. Ed Viesturs, an elite climber himself, makes the stories come alive with background knowledge and anecdotes. This is the kind of book that makes me wonder about some of the crazy things people do for fun, but I'm glad they do it because it makes for great storytelling.

The desire to be the first to do something adventurous has been a grea...more

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Jan 15, 2011 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ed Viesturs has put together an extremely intersting climbing history of K2 - the 2nd highest and most dangerous 8000+m mountain in the world. Viesturs knows what he is writing about...he has summited K2 as well as the rest of the 14 8000+m mountains in the world, and his climbing resume includes 7 times reaching the top of Mt. Everest.

I greatly enjoyed hearing about his personal experiences in conquering K2 and the narrative climbing history he has put together about this deadly mountain. He s...more Ed Viesturs has put together an extremely intersting climbing history of K2 - the 2nd highest and most dangerous 8000+m mountain in the world. Viesturs knows what he is writing about...he has summited K2 as well as the rest of the 14 8000+m mountains in the world, and his climbing resume includes 7 times reaching the top of Mt. Everest.

I greatly enjoyed hearing about his personal experiences in conquering K2 and the narrative climbing history he has put together about this deadly mountain. He starts the tale back to the late 1800s with the first survey of K2 and expeditions in the early 1900s that attempted to discover climbing routes up its slopes but couldn't solve the mountain's riddles. He tells how early expeditions had to literally march over 300 miles to get to a site for base camp. He also discusses reasons different people had for trying to tackle this peak. There was intense nationalism, personal conquest, and even love.

The sobering part of the book are the accounts of the many people that died as they took on this mountain. Many of their bodies have never been recovered, and some were left in place because there was simply nothing anyone could do to safely recover their bodies. Some deaths were witnessed, and other climbers simply vanished.

We also gain an insight into the interpersonal relations, the egos, the challenges, and unhealthy competition that sometimes exists between climbers.

I was amazed at the number of climbers that died AFTER reaching the summit. Like Viesturs says, he has found that descents are often more dangerous than ascents.

The part I liked best about this book is that it is not written by an "armchair climber." It is written by someone that knows what it is like to have to bivouac above 26K feet, the real risks of frostbite, what it's like to climb the tallest peaks in the world without using supplemental oxygen, and someone that knows the pain of losing friends and colleagues in mountain climbing accidents.

So, why do they do it? The best answer I could come up with is that while climbing the tallest mountains in the world presents a seious physical challenge, many of the top climbers in the world just like being up there!

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Dec 14, 2010 Linda C rated it 3 of 5 stars

I don't read a lot of non-fiction, so I picked this up at the library on a whim, seeing that it was located on the "Too Good to Miss" shelf, where the librarians put their favorities. And it was pretty good-- as some other reviewers have noted, if you read a lot of these books, the book might be redundant, since the expeditions discussed have numerous books of their own, written by actual participants.

However, since my entire mountain climbing book reading experience is limited to "Into Thin Air...more I don't read a lot of non-fiction, so I picked this up at the library on a whim, seeing that it was located on the "Too Good to Miss" shelf, where the librarians put their favorities. And it was pretty good-- as some other reviewers have noted, if you read a lot of these books, the book might be redundant, since the expeditions discussed have numerous books of their own, written by actual participants.

However, since my entire mountain climbing book reading experience is limited to "Into Thin Air" and Newsweek accounts of the Everest and K2 disasters in 1998 and 2008, this was all new material for me. While there was a lot of expeditions and disasters to keep track of, I found it quite interesting. It dragged a bit at the end; all the expeditions were starting to sound alike, but the early expeditions were fascinating. So many people tried to climb this mountain in the first half of the 20th century with equipment that was totally unsuitable by today's standards, and so many died trying.

One reviewer said that she got tired of Ed Viesturs' "moralizing on the mountain", but I felt that he was a voice of sanity in what could be deemed to be an insane activity. He has certain iron clad rules about when to turn back on a summit attempt, never leave another climber in distress just to continue your own summit, etc. and he's still alive to talk about his experiences, unlike many of his friends. He climbed with Gary Hall and Scott Fisher, both of whom died in the "Thin Air" disaster, as well as numerous other famous climbers who died on various mountains around the world.

Viesturs was the first American to climb all 14 great peaks, without using bottled oxygen, so he is entitled to a little moralizing, in my opinion. If more climbers followed his rules, maybe more of them would still be alive. Apparently, the descent is more dangerous than the ascent and when climbers refuse to turn back in time, they don't leave themselves with enought time to safely descend before night falls.

So, if you haven't read a lot of mountaineering books, this is a decent book to read.(less)

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Dec 12, 2010 Carrie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Picked this book up somewhat randomly when we were in Colorado and looking to support a small local bookstore, and for obvious reasons, feeling a little alpine.

All in all, this book grew on me as it went along. At first I found Ed a little self-aggrandizing in the disguised-as-humble way that makes it all the more annoying (and I should know, as I do this myself, not part of my charm). Not about his physical feats (which frankly he could brag openly about for all I care, I mean dude has earned i...more Picked this book up somewhat randomly when we were in Colorado and looking to support a small local bookstore, and for obvious reasons, feeling a little alpine.

All in all, this book grew on me as it went along. At first I found Ed a little self-aggrandizing in the disguised-as-humble way that makes it all the more annoying (and I should know, as I do this myself, not part of my charm). Not about his physical feats (which frankly he could brag openly about for all I care, I mean dude has earned it) but more about his moral superiority on the mountain. But after awhile you sort of feel like you get to know him and then you don't mind so much because it just becomes part of his personality you can accept like a friend's peccadilloes.

In the beginning I found the storytelling kind of lacking - huge lists of names of people making expeditions we barely get to know. But toward the end there are some real nail-biting moments on the mountain that certainly sucked me in. It's a little bit odd in that he's writing here primarily about expeditions he wasn't on that have been chronicled many times elsewhere, but I guess it is valuable to get his perspective.

There's also not a lot of reflection on what, exactly, makes this guy tick, what really motivates him, exactly to take the kinds of risks most of us could only begin to imagine. He really sees himself as a big time Safety First kind of guy...but while he points out lots of mistakes that led to various deaths on the mountains, he also allows that many of them are pure bad luck that no amount of precaution could prevent. This is what sets Krakauer apart from others who have written about mountains - not only is he a great storyteller, he is able to reflect in meaningful ways about why people do what they do - and not just the commercialization of places like Everest where fools pay for the privilege of having somebody else carry them up the mountain, but about how guys like this who are married with kids take an extreme unnecessary risk that results in So. Much. Death. (less)

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Feb 08, 2010 Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ed Viesturs is a climbing legend - for example, he's the only American to climb all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter mountains without supplemental oxygen - and a good memoirist, but this book is mostly about others' experiences on the world's second highest peak. It chronicles seven famous expeditions, including the author's own ascent in 1992, most of which are tinged with tragedy in some meaningful way (which is a hallmark of even the most gifted climbers' experiences of the mountain generally c...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Ciara rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2010

my understanding is that this isn't necessarily a stand-out book as far as mountaineering chronicles go. a lot of the stories in the book have been thoroughly canvassed by a great many other books, sometimes first-hand. but i haven't read that many mountaineering books, so it held my attention. K2 is the world's second tallest mountain, but it seems to prevent a far more technically challenging climb than everest. not nearly as many climbers have attempted to summit K2 (in part because the range...more my understanding is that this isn't necessarily a stand-out book as far as mountaineering chronicles go. a lot of the stories in the book have been thoroughly canvassed by a great many other books, sometimes first-hand. but i haven't read that many mountaineering books, so it held my attention. K2 is the world's second tallest mountain, but it seems to prevent a far more technically challenging climb than everest. not nearly as many climbers have attempted to summit K2 (in part because the range it is located in was closed to the outside world for several decades), & statistically, fewer have summitted & more have died in the attempt. this book tells the stories of a few especially dangerous attempts on the mountain, dating all the way back to the late 30s, when two separate (but linked) expeditions tackled the mountain, with two very different outcomes. viesturs covers the italian expedition that finally put climbers on the peak, & the summer of 1986, when eleven climbers died in various freak accidents (avalanches, falling into crevasses, etc). in 2008, the serac overhanging the bottleneck finally started to topple, & reading about the lives that were extinguished by enormous falling chunks of ice was an intense experience.

every time i read on of these mountaineering books, i am blown away that people actually do this. i have climbed exactly one mountain in my life--a really mellow trail on one of the three sisters in oregon. it wasn't technically difficult at all, or even physically taxing, but i still hated it. i can't even imagine going up on a mountain like K2 or everest...but i still love reading this books, for uterrly inexplicable reasons. this is a great read for an armchair voyeur like me...probably more of an obnoxious, self-satisfied read for a seasoned mountaineer (viesturs spends a lot of time speculating about what he might have tried to do differently on various climbs...& maybe he totally knows what he's talking; obviously he knows way more than i do so i'm not going to cast any aspersions). (less)

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Dec 08, 2009 Mazola1 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ed Viesturs is one of the most accomplished high altitute mountaineers of all time and David Roberts is both an experienced climber and a noted author of climbing books. Together, they have written a history of K2, the "World's Most Dangerous Mountain." In it, they summarize many of the most noteworthy attempts to climb the mountain, both successful and unsuccessful, and chronicle the many deaths on the mountain.

Viesturs and Roberts say that "no mountain in the world has a more interesting hist...more

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Nov 24, 2009 Don rated it 4 of 5 stars

(FROM MY BLOG) Most of us admire those strong souls whose internal code demands a certain purity of conduct -- those who strive to satisfy their own ideals, not seek the world's admiration or hope somehow to sell their accomplishments. We admire, for example, the craftsman who makes violins the way he believes they should be made, even though he knows he could make far more money selling mediocre instruments to purchasers who wouldn't know or care about the difference.

Ed Viesturs, the first Amer...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, has been scaled by 3142 people, of which 210 died on the mountain. K2, the second highest mountain, has been scaled by 284 people, of which 66 have died. While Everest captures much of the public attention, the tragedy-filled history of K2 is ultimately the more interesting. Ed Viesturs, an experienced mountaineer whose accomplishments include scaling all of the fourteen "eight thousander" (8000+ metres high) mountains on Earth, has written a his...more

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Mar 13, 2011 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars

Viesturs is not a lyrical writer, opining about the beauty of the mountains. He is a "nuts and bolts" writer who seems like he is simply having a conversation with the reader about subjects he is very knowledgeable about. The book is very interesting for its recounting of the major expeditions to K2, complete with their triumphs and controversies. This is both a good introduction to this history and interesting for those who already know a bit about it. In fact, Viesturs provides a sort of "herm...more

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Feb 19, 2011 Kilat1 rated it 4 of 5 stars

Man, I just can't seem to get enough of mountaineering stories. These high altitude guys are always amazing, but sometimes selfish, self-centered egomaniacs. Ed Viesturs is one worth admiring, an old-school mountaineer who still believes that people are more important than the mountains they're climbing. His motto on the big mountains: "Getting to the summit is optional; getting to the bottom is mandatory."

I mention this because I think many people are turned off by the most public face of moder...more

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Jun 07, 2013 josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: mountaineering, nature, non-fiction, travel, sports

Another Viesturs mountaineering / history romp through the Karakorum. As the title indicates, this time we had a guided tour across Terra's 2nd highest peak - and one of the worst ratios of the 14 in terms of success:death.

As with all of his books, Viesturs tries to guide the reader through a laundry list of circumstances, conditions and variables associated with each of the expeditions he delves into. The imagery is fairly vivid and helps armchair mountaineers to feel some sort of association...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Scott rated it 2 of 5 stars

For me, i found it hard to read the "pinballing" between all the different experiences of other climbers and himself. It was almost as if a certain event would trigger a memory of another event which would, in turn, remind him of his own experience of which he did better than all the rest of the climbers. And that brings me to the next thing I didn't like about the book. There was a lot of self inflating going on in the book. I mean, I get it, he's an amazing mountaineer but I get the feeling th...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Marsha rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, biography, adventure

I'm not sure what attracts a middle-aged, overweight woman to the aura surrounding high alpine climbing, but there it is. I have read a lot of mountaineering books and love them. This book by Ed Viesturs is a wonderful history of the attempts to conquer K2, the second highest mountain in the world. From his writing, it sounds like K2 is a harder technical climb than Everest.

Viesturs and his ghostwriter make the various attempts exciting with the right amount of reverence for both the art of cli...more

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May 09, 2011 Kelsey rated it 3 of 5 stars

My problem was this book was it didn't seem to know what type of book it was. It was a little bit Ed Viesturs memoir, a little bit the history of K2, a little bit the history of mountaineering 8,000 meter peaks.
When Viesturs concentrated on certain incidents, the writing was very good and the stories engaging. But the stories often seemed disjointed. One minute we were on K2, then we were on Everest. There also was at times, too much emphasis on other peopel's accounts, a bulk of the book was ci...more

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Oct 26, 2009 Jean rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies-and-histories

Because I've read so many books on Mt. Everest and K2, this book wasn't exceptionally gripping but interesting all the same. If you haven't read much about climbing you would probably rate this a 5 star. As for hiking all great mountains- Reaching the summit is optional...getting down the mountain is mandatory. The true work begins on the way down the mountain.

Heres an interesting tidbit I learned though. K2 is a more difficult mountain to climb than Mount Everest. In 2008 alone 290 climbers re...more

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Jul 01, 2010 Liz Nutting rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mountain-climbing

When temperatures in the desert reach sustained triple digits, there's nothing more refreshing than reading about climbers suffering frostbite or freezing to death on the summits of the world's highest mountains. And Ed Viesturs' K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain has enough harrowing tales of frozen mountaineers to keep me cool for days.

To my mind, there are few types of adventure literature as thrilling as the tales of triumph and survival on the peaks of the Andes, the...more When temperatures in the desert reach sustained triple digits, there's nothing more refreshing than reading about climbers suffering frostbite or freezing to death on the summits of the world's highest mountains. And Ed Viesturs' K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain has enough harrowing tales of frozen mountaineers to keep me cool for days.

To my mind, there are few types of adventure literature as thrilling as the tales of triumph and survival on the peaks of the Andes, the Alps, and especially the grand 8000 meter peaks of the Himalaya. There's no such thing as a routine summit trek (or if there is, no one bothers to write about it). Even as the slopes of Everest become jammed each Spring with teenagers and dilettantes paying high five-figure fees to be spoon fed the summit, the harrowing tales of expeditions past remind us that human beings are more inclined than not to disregard Viesturs' iron clad rule of climbing: "Getting to the summit is optional; getting down is mandatory."

Viesturs' K2 focuses attention on seven expeditions or climbing seasons on the second tallest mountain in the world. While not as famous (to non-climbers) as Everest, K2 is technically much more challenging and demanding, and it has a long history of disastrous attempts to "conquer" its slopes. And in case one thinks that all the tragedy occurred in the early attempts before the best route was finally found, K2 starts by relating the tragic 2008 climbing season when eleven climbers were killed over the course of just two days.

The history of K2 expeditions is fascinating, and Viesturs, who is one of the premier American climbers of our era and the only American to have climbed all fourteen 8000 meter peaks (all without supplemental oxygen), is a great story teller. That he, himself, is such a careful student of his sport allows him to really analyze each expedition to see what went right and what when horribly wrong. If the book has a gross fault, it is when Viesturs strays into sanctimoniousness, constantly reminding us that he would never start too late for the summit or fail to "wand" the route so he could find his way down in a storm. And of course his own desire for the summit would never, ever lead him to take unnecessary chances. If he weren't so accomplished in his own right, I would have been tempted to throw the book across the room a few times. Yet even at his most self-righteous, Viesturs never once loses his compassion for and admiration of those climbers who left it all (sometimes including their own bodies) on the mountain.

K2 is not as exciting as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air (the book that began my fascination with high altitude mountaineering) or the heart-stopping Touching the Void by Joe Simpson. But it is a worthy history of some of the greatest climbing attempts ever made. I'm now eagerly waiting for my library to deliver Forever on the Mountain, the story of a 1962 climbing disaster on Denali (aka Mt. McKinley). Summer reading at its coolest!

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Dec 04, 2009 Sam Page rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone interested in Himalayan mountaineering

This book is the second collaborative work by Ed Viesturs and David Roberts. Viesturs was the first American to summit all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks (and he did them all without supplemental oxygen) and Roberts is a prolific author of mountaineering literature, in addition to being the author of several harrowing first ascents in Alaska. The book was prompted, or at least made more relevant, by the disaster high on K2 in 2008, in which eleven climbers were killed after the partial collapse of t...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good read by a well regarded climber (Visturs) whose summitted all 14 8,000 m peaks. He's got a bit of an ego, but then again, he's walked the walk so he can crow all day long as far as i'm concerned.

Unlike Everest,the high-density feedlot of climbing tourism, K2 (along with Annapurna, Nanga Prabtt) is the 'climbers' mountain of choice and considered significantly more difficult to summit....and get back down alive.

He covers the most exciting and tragic summit attempts in the many decades that...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Erica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: outdoors

Overall an interesting overview of the history of K2 and the plethora of teams that have tried to summit. It would have made a bigger impression and seemed more groundbreaking if I hadn't read In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods right after.

My largest problem with the book was that Viesturs made a huge deal about how Western society ignores the role that the Sherpas play in mountain climbing (which is true and I admire him for making it an issue) and points out how they are never named in p...more

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Apr 29, 2012 Libby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another "idiots on Everest"-type audiobook to listen to while I run. It took me a long time to finish this, because I kept getting sidetracked halfway through the 1939 expedition and having to go back to the beginning of that chapter when I came back to it. That got a bit tedious, but it's not the book's fault. Overall, quite an enjoyable read.

This is the first K2 book I've read, so I have no idea how Viesturs' ideas stack up against other theories (many of which he mentions and supports or refu...more

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Mar 17, 2010 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Like his first book, No Shortcuts to the Top, Viesturs' newest is a no-nonsense and thorough exploration of climbing the world's highest peaks - in this case, K2 of the Karkoram Range. Viesturs' philosophy that you haven't summited until you've arrived safely at Base Camp remains a constant, but this book is less about his climb of K2 with Scott Fischer and more about the history of climbing K2.

Viesturs thoroughly describes and explains the major summit bids, and his list of works cited is impr...more

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May 02, 2010 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

I am not an extreme mountaineer. But I love Ed Viesturs. He came to Seattle on a National Geographic Tour a few years back and I got to go watch him speak. I have crazy admiration for this man and the physical goals he's achieved. Add in my fascination with extreme sports, the Himilayas, and armchair adventure travel, and this is my kind of book.

Viesturs (with Roberts) pens an informative, accessible, and at times funny history of K2 and those who would climb it. Unlike Viesturs' memoir No Short...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Bob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read and enjoyed Ed Viesturs' previous book about his accomplishments climbing all fourteen of the highest peaks in the world. This story tells about K2 specifically, with some commentary on many other climbers and other peaks. The 1938 and 1939 expeditions are covered in detail, as are the 1953 and 1954 expeditions, in addition to his own climb in 1992 and the disasterous season of 2008.
As mentioned in the description of the book, K2 has a high rate of failure, as well as a high rate of death...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Rob Maynard rated it 4 of 5 stars

My interest in high mountain climbing from an armchair perspective goes back in earnest to Jon Krakauer's controversial "Into Thin Air", chronicling the disastrous events of May 1996 when two guided expeditions to the summit of Everest came a cropper in a twilight blizzard as they were coming late off the summit. Eight climbers died that day, the controversy over guided high mountain expeditions spilled over into popular culture, and dozens of books were launched. I learned as I explored the lit...more My interest in high mountain climbing from an armchair perspective goes back in earnest to Jon Krakauer's controversial "Into Thin Air", chronicling the disastrous events of May 1996 when two guided expeditions to the summit of Everest came a cropper in a twilight blizzard as they were coming late off the summit. Eight climbers died that day, the controversy over guided high mountain expeditions spilled over into popular culture, and dozens of books were launched. I learned as I explored the literary aftermath of that event that big mountain climbing is a contentious business.

But as I delved deeper into 'alpine' literature I discovered the dissension, finger-pointing, and little mistakes that lead to disaster go right along with the amazing tales of courage and derring-do at the end of a rope at 8000 meters. I've read probably a dozen or more books on the subject over the years and there are plenty more out there, going back to the early 20th century tales of such icons of the "sport" as Mallory, Irvine, and the Duke of Abruzzi. The two best writers I've read are Krakauer and Ed Viesturs.

Krakauer is a gifted writer who happens to have climbed, Viesturs is a modern climbing icon turned effective writer. He made it back safely from all 14 eight thousand meter peaks, yet has also watched climbers, including friends and climbing partners, die in the many and various ways it can happen in that otherworldly environment above 25,000 feet. He professes a philosophy backed up with his own boots on the ground that it is better to safely fail at a summit attempt than to risk dying by making rash decisions at the golden moment when a summit seems in reach but things can easily go sideways for a hundred different reasons.

Viesturs summitted K2 in 1992 during a season in which numerous climbers died trying, and this book is a look back at that expedition, as well as the earlier famed Italian and American expeditions that resulted in the early attempts at the summit. Just getting to K2 is an amazing ordeal. But the climbing, avalanche and altitude dangers once you reach base camp are grinding. Big mountain climbers can tolerate pain and terror and cold and boredom at a level that you or I cannot process. Viesturs writes in a fluid and compelling way about the psychological dynamics of climbing and climbers as much as he does about routes and pitches and itineraries which are often the meat of books like these. His comparison of his experiences in 1992 with those of the pioneers in the Karakoram from generations before give an expansive view of the differences and similarities in men who climbed in flannel and hob nail boots and those who used Gore-Tex and called home on satellite phones.

As an aside, Viesturs writes predominantly about men in this book, although he climbed with women on K2 and helped rescue the tragic and erotic Chantal Mauduit from high on the mountain before his own summit.

Controversy in 8000 meter climbing has existed from the beginning, and these people are such freakish athletes that they live long lives when they aren't killed climbing. So the grudges and recriminations endure. Viesters manages this minefield with an even hand and generous spirit. This is a good read whether you are fascinated by climbing or just curious. I hope to get to meet Viesturs some day. He has retained his humanity at the high levels of a community that often strips it away. (less)

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Nov 04, 2010 Terry Koressel rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is a good historical documentary. The jacket cover calls it "an edge-of-your-seat" narrative....it is not. That's ok by me because I enjoy well-written, well-researched documentaries. And this book scored on both accounts. It describes each of the great 20th century expeditions to K2 and the attempted "firsts" on this mountain. The mortality rate is astonishing on K2, so the documented accounts of the expeditions are adventuresome...even for the reader. Ed Viesturs knows alpine mountai...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Chris Ross rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-about-people, everest, survival

This book is essentially a recount of all of the tragic K2 expeditions that resulted in death. Viesturs starts out by saying that he tries not to be critical of other climbers or second guess other climbers then goes right on and contradicts himself and is critical of other climbers and points out all that they did wrong in his opinion and why most are now dead from the K2 expeditions he reviewed. I am not a climber and would never pay to be guided up Everest or K2 even if I had the money. Viest...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Tammy rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is the second of two books Viesturs and Roberts have written together. If you've read the first one (No Shortcuts to the Top), you will recognize a good third of the material in their K2 book which chronicles most of the notable expeditions to this mountain.

If a person devours mountaineering literature, little in this book will be new. However, Viesturs offers his personal and often candid assessments of these tragedies (and the accounts written by others).

In sum, nothing particular stands...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Kiri rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of mountaineering books in my time, and this is a fine representative of the species. Viesturs does a good job structuring the narrative, framing it with his own experiences on the mountain, recollecting the events of the tragic 2008 season, and providing a detailed history of efforts to climb the second highest mountain in the world. I had read about the historical attempts in other books, but this narrative certainly holds its own. Both the historical expeditions and the more r...more

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Ed Viesturs on The Most Important Climb in K2's History

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About Ed Viesturs

Ed Viesturs is America's leading high altitude mountaineer, having climbed many of the world's most challenging summits, including ascending Mount Everest seven times. He recently completed a 16-year quest to climb all 14 of the world's highest mountains (above 8,000 meters) without the use of supplemental oxygen. In doing so, he became the first American and the 5th person in the world to accomp...more

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Books by Ed Viesturs

No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks

The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna--the World's Deadliest Peak

Himalayan Quest: Ed Viesturs on the 8,000-Meter Giants

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“K2 is not some malevolent being, lurking there above the Baltoro, waiting to get us. It's just there. It's indifferent. It's an inanimate mountain made of rock, ice, and snow. The "savageness" is what we project onto it, as if we blame the peak for our own misadventures on it.” — 1 person liked it

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K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain

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