K2: The 1939 Tragedy

by Andrew J. Kauffman, William L. Putnam

The story of the 1939 American K2 expedition is well known among mountaineers: world-class German-born climber Fritz Wiessner and Pasang Dawa Lama came within 800 feet of attaining the world's second highest unclimbed summit before turning back for more supplies. Rejoining them on the descent was Dudley Wolfe, who had stayed not far below. Upon reaching the lower camps, the party found them stripped of supplies and deserted. Wiessner decided to descend further to investigate and left Wolfe behind - alone. Later, unable to descend solo, Wolfe had to be rescued; but the attempt failed, and Wolfe and Sherpas Pasang Kikuli, Pasang Kitar, and Phinsoo died. Initially Wiessner was held responsible, but in time the blame shifted to climber Jack Durrance and another Sherpa. The disaster was considered one of the worst accidents in the climbing history of the Himalayas. It was also the subject of much speculation for years afterwards; in 1961 Italian climber Fosco Maraini claimed it a tragedy "on which no full light has ever been shed".

For some historians, the speculation would not rest. There were too many missing pieces, inconsistencies, and unanswered questions for a disaster of this scale. Unfortunately, reliable documentation was scarce. So was the cooperation of the remaining expedition members, who did not want to rekindle the controversy that arose from the expedition's failure. They echoed the neutral statement issued by the investigating committee of the American Alpine Club in 1940, which said, in effect, let sleeping dogs lie.

When Andrew J. Kaufmann and William L. Putnam began work on Wiessner's biography, they found discrepancies in the account of the K2 incident. Intrigued, they dug deeper and began to uncover a larger tangle of events than had been previously suspected. The recent availability of Jack Durrance's own trip diary further enabled them to unravel the events of the ill-fated adventure on K2.

'K2 The 1939 Tragedy' retraces the expedition's key elements - the debilitating weather, the personalities and weaknesses of party members, Wiessner's "romantic vision" uncharacteristic of the climbing era - and reveals the steps that led toward catastrophe. This story stands as one of the most dramatic, complex, and instructive in mountaineering history. 'K2 The 1939 Tragedy' attempts to balance accounts of this fifty-year-old saga.

The strap-line on the cover 'The Full Story of the Ill-Fated Wiessner Expedition' is not carried through to the title page and the book has been catalogued accordingly.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 1992

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

After an incident-packed attempt to climb K2, the second highest peak in the world, German-born climber Fritz Wiessner, a vastly experienced Alpine mountaineer then living in America, decided the time was right to make another assault on the mountain.

He gathered together an experienced team and was confident of success. But events changed his plans as one after another the more experienced mountaineers cried off for one reason or another. Rather than call off the expedition he recruited others to the team but none of them were the old hands that he had lost. And one or two of them were not even proven mountaineers. They were monied people, who could put funds into the kitty for the expedition but they were certainly inexperienced.

He organised a team of Sherpas to assist but the march to base camp was fraught with problems, mostly minor, but enough to suggest that when the going got tough it might be a different tale. Wiessner was not the most sympathetic of listeners nor was he a good teacher as his view was that everyone should be as capable as he was. This was clearly not the case, even on that long walk to base camp.

And once they got on the mountain, the problems magnified, particularly when he had a personality clash with his second most experienced climber, Jack Durrance. This led to differences in heading up the mountain to secure the camps where food and clothing would be stored for the final attempt to the summit. But eventually, not without problems, camps I to VII were established. But the ferrying from base upwards would not always go smoothly and Wiessner took an autocratic role in proceedings, which did not always go down well.

But eventually Wiessner and, rather surprisingly, Dudley Wolfe, perhaps the least experienced of them all, made it to camp VII ready for an attack on the summit. But Wolfe was clearly incapable of the extra effort required so Wiessner went upwards alone. He fell short of the summit by some few hundred feet and when he returned Wolfe was incapable of making it down. So he left him there, with no food and little protection from the weather, and went down alone to see what he could arrange.

Unfortunately some of the lower camps had been stripped of their supplies and tents so he was bivouacing as best he could. This did him no good and at one point he very nearly lost his life in a fall and by the time he reached the lower reaches he was all but done in. But, with Wolfe still on the mountain, a rescue had to be attempted. It was, but with dire consequences as Wolfe and three Sherpas went missing. So the attempt on K2 was doomed to failure.

Not only that, this was the first American overseas mountaineering expedition in which lives were lost; 12 men that set foot on K2 had been casualties and four of them had lost their lives. The ramifications of the failure were many and enquiries followed and sides were taken. Many blamed Wiessner, whose attitude and leadership had left much to be desired, but others supported him to the hilt and said that he could do nothing other than what he had done. It was all very messy.

And Andrew Kaufman and William Putnam try to put the record straight with as much information from all sources as they can lay their hands on ... but in the end it all seems so unsatisfactory.