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No Way Down: Life and Death on K2
written by Graham Bowley
Studio : Harper
by Harper
Release Date : 2010-06-29
Publisher : Harper
Released : 2010-07-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780061834783
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 38 reviews)
List Price : $25.99
Our Price : $13.10
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ISBN13: 9780061834783
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Condition: New
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Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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Product Description |
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In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, journalist Graham Bowley re-creates one of the most dramatic tales of death and survival in mountaineering history, vividly taking readers through the tragic 2008 K2 ascent that claimed the lives of eleven climbers, severely injured two others, and made headlines around the world. With its near-perfect pyramid shape, the 28,251-foot K2—the world's second-highest mountain, some 800 feet shorter than the legendary Everest hundreds of miles to the south—has lured serious climbers for decades. In 2008, near the end of a brief climbing season cut even shorter by bad weather, no fewer than ten international teams—some experienced, others less prepared—crowded the mountain's dangerous slopes with their Sherpas and porters, waiting to ascend. Finally, on August 1, they were able to set off. But hindered by poor judgment, lack of equipment, and overcrowded conditions, the last group did not summit until nearly 8 p.m., hours later than planned. Then disaster struck when a huge ice chunk from above the Bottleneck, a deadly 300-foot avalanche-prone gulley just below the summit, came loose and destroyed the fixed guide ropes. More than a dozen climbers and porters still above the Bottleneck—many without oxygen and some with no headlamps—faced the near impossibility of descending in the blackness with no guideline and no protection. Over the course of the chaotic night, some would miraculously make it back. Others would not. Based on in-depth interviews with surviving climbers and many Sherpas, porters, and family and friends of the deceased, No Way Down reveals for the first time the full dimensions of this harrowing drama. |
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Could have been so much better |
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This books combines a very compelling story with the rather uninvolving narrative of a third party non-specialist. As such it joins a field that has a whole slew of much more involving books, and comes of lackluster. |
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Interesting subject, but not for the K-2 novice |
I've read a lot of mountaineering books, primarily about Everest, so I was really interested in learning more about K-2, which (though smaller by just under 800 feet) is a harder mountain to summit. Given the large collection of books that have been written in recent years on mountaineering in the Himalayas, I think Graham Bowley made some writing decisions in reaction to the ouvre rather than for his book.
One of those is that Bowley does not spend much time at all on the basics of the mountain or the sport in general. There are a few very interesting anecdotes about the history of K-2 climbers, but it's a bit rushed. He doesn't spend time really walking the reader through what the climbers were facing in these situations (really giving the reader a solid base), or going through a lot of details about the basics of problems that climbers face in high altitude situations. I think that was a deliberate decision on Bowley's part -- I think that he assumed that anyone reading his book would already have read a number of similar books, and he didn't want to re-cover information. I think his lack of personal mountaineering experience also played a large role in that writing decision. I can see why he chose to avoid spending the time on basics, then, but I just don't really agree with it.
Another thing that bothered me a bit is that Bowley focuses almost exclusively on the events of the summit day and the four or so days following it when people were still in the process of being rescued. It's a complicated subject, with a great deal of conflicting opinions and necessary conjectures (particularly in the cases of small groups or people where there was no survivor left to tell what had happened), but I think he could've better served the subject and the reader by starting at the base of the mountain and following the events that *led to* the summit day. It would've given the reader a better ability to both learn the dangers of the mountain, the types of climbing specific to K-2, and also get a better idea of who these people were and how they were interacting. Without that, he essentially had to introduce each person as they met their moment of peril -- which I felt really robbed both the reader and the people in question.
Beyond these two major concerns I had, I think that this book has a place within its field. But Bowley doesn't reach beyond his primary subject -- the specifics of the disaster and what occurred with those who lived or died. There were so many opportunities to really explore the growing place (and reliance on) technology high up the mountain, and the interaction and problems faced with so many teams. But I think that Bowley allowed his own inexperience with the subject to box him in and stunt his exploration of the larger setting of this incident.
Good books to read to fill in the gaps left by this book would be "Dark Summit" and "K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain." |
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Hang on Tight |
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If you liked Into Thin Air, then you will like No Way Down. Same kind of story, but this time on K2. The author does a great job of capturing multiple perspectives on the trip and conveying the drama of several days on the mountain. It is pretty short, and you will not want to put it down until you find out who lives and who dies. |
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Not up to all the hype |
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I'm a big fan of mountaineering and climbing books and was therefore excited about this new release -given all of the praise. However the book reads a bit flat, choppy, and failed to capture my attention. It's certainly not bad, but all the hype had my expectations elevated. |
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In the Death Zone |
K2 has a well-deserved reputation for being one of the world's most dangerous peaks, but that hasn't stopped significant numbers of climbers from making an attempt at glory and personal accomplishment. Once isolated and difficult to reach, it is now the focus of whole industries and livelihoods, and in some years literally dozens of people show up to try to reach the summit. This is an account of what happened when a random event struck a scrum of climbers in a worst-case scenario of "wrong place, wrong time".
The author has conducted a considerable amount of research and has undertaken personal interviews with many of the principals, and has had to sort through multiple accounts, many flavored by various agendas, biases, and points of view, to try to piece together a coherent narrative. In some cases, he's been reduced to conjecture about certain key events and has striven to put forth the best explanation possible from the available facts and the input of mountaineering experts.
My major complaint is that in at least two cases, he tells us what people were thinking at specific moments, which is a bit of a stretch given that those individuals were amongst the climbers who died in the descent. In his preface and epilogue, he does note that he was told a great deal about the character of various figures, and none of the thoughts he attributes to the deceased are out of the ordinary for anyone under those circumstances, but still this sort of thing sits rather poorly with me.
The advance copy did not have any maps, illustrations, or photos, which will hopefully be present in the mainstream release.
Additional points are given to the author for being more or less open about his reservations (bordering on dislike) about some of the major characters involved in this tragedy, and in showing how for the Westerners mountain-climbing was a passion but a luxury, while for most of the Sherpas, guides, and porters it was a badly-needed job. |
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