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

by Ed Viesturs, David Roberts

3.62 · rating details · 532 ratings · 120 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...moreA 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 Broadway (first published 2009)

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Jan 08, 2012

Philippa rated it

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...more

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Sep 29, 2011

Heidi rated it

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 h...more

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Jan 15, 2011

Alan rated it

· 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 mo...moreEd 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

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 li...moreI 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

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 ...morePicked 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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Mar 07, 2010

Andrea rated it

K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is considered the toughest one to climb. One in four climbers who have tried, have died. Ed Viesturs, the first American to summit all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks, chronicles the history of the mountain from the mid-1800's to the tragedy of the 2008 season (eleven climbers died).

This is a highly enjoyable and fascinating read. I have zero desire to climb mountains, yet I am always drawn to stories of others who do. Viesturs write a mostly even-...more

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Feb 08, 2010

Walter rated it

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 ...more

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Jan 28, 2010

Ciara rated it

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...moremy 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

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...moreEd 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 history." That's true. Expeditions to K2 have been marked by all too many deaths, freak accidents, bad luck, lucky escapes, great daring, admirable courage and sacrifice, as well as bitter rivalries, cruelty, callousness and shocking selfishness. Viesturs and Roberts tell the stories of climbers who risked life and limb to try to rescue injured teammates, but also chronicle the actions of climbers who deliberately put others at risk to keep summit bids to themselves. They refer to the climbing literature authored by many of these mountaineers, pointing out inconsistencies and probable lies and exaggerations in some of them, and praising others for the inspiration they have provided to generations of aspiring climbers.

But in the end, I found myself nagged by a slight sense of disappointment that this book wasn't better than it is. This may simply be a function of the fact that I've read most of Viesturs' and Roberts' source material, and so their tale seems a bit like warmed over leftovers. In that regard, I would have liked it if the authors' treatment of the 2008 disaster on K2 which took the lives of 11 climbers, had been a bit longer.

In addition, Viesturs' book about his own climbing life, No Short Cuts to the Top, has an immediancy and bite that this history of K2 lacks. Quite simply, Viesturs is a lot better at telling his own climbing stories than he is at telling other people's climbing stories. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Or with this book. (less)

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Nov 24, 2009

Don rated it

(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, t...more

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Mar 13, 2011

Matt rated it

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...more

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Feb 19, 2011

Kilat1 rated it

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 m...more

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Oct 16, 2011

Scott rated it

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 ...more

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May 09, 2011

Kelsey rated it

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 ...more

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Oct 26, 2009

Jean rated it

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 alon...more

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Jul 01, 2010

Liz Nutting rated it

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 th...moreWhen 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

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...more

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Oct 14, 2009

Erica rated it

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 neve...more

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Mar 17, 2010

Leslie rated it

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...more

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May 02, 2010

Holly rated it

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' mem...more

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Jun 26, 2011

Bob rated it

· 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...more

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Nov 04, 2010

Terry Koressel rated it

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 Viest...more

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Jan 18, 2010

Tammy rated it

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...more

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Feb 25, 2010

Kiri rated it

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 mor...more

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Aug 13, 2011

Lindsay Eaton added it · review of another edition

While mountaineering is not really my thing, I've read a couple of books about Everest (Krakauer's 'Into Thin Air' and Hemmleb's 'Ghosts on Everest') and thought that a book about the history of K2 might be interesting. I wasn't disappointed and I really enjoyed reading this. My only criticism is that by the time I got to the end, I had forgotten how the book started and had to look back to get the timeline straight. Otherwise I would recommend it as well-written and interesting - both for its...more

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Jan 19, 2012

Margaret Unger rated it

Although the stories of K2 that Viesturs describes are very interesting, the book would benefit from the attentions of a good editor. It seems rather haphazardly written and I had trouble keeping track of what was going on, where, and with whom. He jumps between decades and expeditions and elaborates on them for pages before returning to the expedition at hand. Numerous spelling and grammatical errors didn't help and some were downright confusing. I came away with a rather blurry picture of ...more

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Jul 14, 2010

Esteban rated it

I've been a Ed Viesturs fan since reading "No shortcuts to the Top". He is arguably one of the best climbers having climbed all 14 peaks of 8,000 meters and one of the few that can objectively lay judgment on the successes and failures of past K2 expeditions which is what he does in this book. K2 has always fascinated me and Ed does an excellent job feeding my interest by carefully narrating the many flawed expeditions of the past with detail and perspective that only one that has cl...more

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May 15, 2011

Caitlyn rated it

Pretty good book. Some of it was very interesting but as someone else said his own commentary is ok but gets repeatative by the end. Early on I got the idea he's more conservative than most people, so he didn't have to keep drilling it in. I really enjoyed the beginning the best. How he talks a bit about how groups' mentality affects the expedition and can lead to death when people quit thinking for themselves. By the end I was tired of all his commentary though. I guess if I ever somehow f...more

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Jun 03, 2010

Julie rated it

Shelves: own, vine, non-fiction

This book works well for two reasons: Ed Viesturs’ authority as a top mountain climber and the comprehensive retellings of the most monumental K2 climbs. Viesturs reexamines pivotal events on K2 and considers lessons that can be learned from each tragedy. When I first started reading the book, I thought Viesturs was a bit pretentious, but when I did my own investigations into his accomplishments and the danger of K2, I was in awe of what he has achieved and I realized he has every right to of...more

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Dec 31, 2009

David rated it

Shelves: read-2009

I'm a bit of a sucker for these mountaineering books, especially when they talk about disasters. I found _Into Thin Air_ fascinating. In this book, Viesturs runs down several K2 expeditions and the trouble they got into and (sometimes) out of. The writing style is straightforward, almost chatty, but the perspective Viesturs brings is very interesting. He's summited all 14 of the world's 8000m mountains, so he has some credibility when he comments on the problems with some teams.

Worth...more

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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

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title link	preview: K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6309380-k2?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320393028m/6309380.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6309380-k2?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs[/url]

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

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