Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day

by Peter Zuckerman

When Compagnoni died fifty-four years after the climb, his obituary in the New York Times focused on his choice to move the tent. A snap decision on K2 had cemented his reputation as the Judas of mountaineering.

naming system they developed still causes mass confusion. According to custom, an individual’s primary name is one of seven weekdays. Boys and girls born on Monday go by Dawa; Tuesday babies are Mingma; for Wednesday, it’s Lhakpa; Thursday, Phurbu; Friday, Pasang; Saturday, Pemba; Sunday, Nima.

Pasang would have to free-climb the Bottleneck without an axe, which he knew was nearly impossible.

corneas began to freeze. It took him some time to notice it. At first, the faces of his friends became milky, and, blinking hard, Wilco strained to focus. An hour later, he was peering through a fogged-up windshield. “And I was thinking, ‘I am so fucking fucked I don’t know how to unfuck myself.’ I couldn’t see anymore and had to take action.”