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K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain |  | Authors: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Brand: Random
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $14.86
as of 11/24/2009 17:46 CST details
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Seller: OB1S
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 601
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition
Pages: 352
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4
ISBN: 0767932501
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522095491
EAN: 9780767932509
ASIN: 0767932501
Publication Date: October 13, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
115042 Features: Get the harsh inside details without the usual rose-colored lenses, Viesturs delivers the story of each climber in the harsh light of day when life-threatening situations cause tensions to build as personalities clash Specifications: Pages: 352 pages Edition: first Jacket: hardcover ISBN-10: 0767932501 Publisher: Broadway
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Christopher Reich Reviews K2: Life and Death on the Worlds Most Dangerous Mountain
Christopher Reigh is the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Vengeance, Numbered Account, and The Patriots Club, which won the International Thiller Writers award for best novel in 2006.
 Is there anything more enthralling than a true tale of high adventure well told? Stories about men and women braving impossible odds under daunting conditions in far flung locales, often risking life and limb, keep me glued to the page every time. I’m talking about books like Papillion, Alive, Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm. Well, today, I’m happy to add another book to that list. K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs with David Roberts.
K2 is the world’s second tallest mountain. Located in the Karakoram Range in northern Pakistan, it has more than earned its nickname as the "world’s most dangerous mountain." Just a year ago, thirteen climbers lost their lives on the mountain in a single day. A few mountains may have killed a higher ratio of those who have tried to climb them, notably Annapurna, but none combine the danger, lore, and prestige of K2. In Viesturs’ new book, he tells the story of six expeditions to the fabled mountain. Some successful. Some ill-fated. All spellbinding.
First, a word about the author. Ed Viesturs is widely acknowledged to be among the world’s top five living mountaineers. In 2005, he became the first American to summit all fourteen of the world’s 8000 meter peaks. And he did so without supplemental oxygen. (His fine memoir, No Shortcuts to the Top, chronicles that adventure.) To offer but one example of his prodigious skills, Viesturs once climbed 7,000 feet from an altitude of 16,000 feet to 23,000 feet up a near vertical slope in only eight hours. Did I mention he was carrying a forty-pound pack on his back? The man is to mountaineering what Michael Jordan is to basketball. If that is, Michael Jordan had risked losing his life every time he stepped onto the basketball court.
Be impressed. Be very impressed.
In K2, Viesturs recounts the most dramatic expeditions to the mountain and he does so in today’s frank and honest terms. Older tellings followed the time honored "gentlemen’s code" of ne’er speaking poorly of one’s climbing partners. To read, "The White Spider," by Heinrich Harrer, the story of the first ascent of the Eiger Nordwand written over fifty years ago, is to believe that anyone who ever strapped on a helmet and a harness was "noble fellow," or a "strong willed lad," whose motivations were as pure as knight seeking the Holy Grail. Viesturs sifts through such rose hued accounts and casts today’s halogen spot light on them. Friendly disagreements amongst climbing pals become knock down, drag out arguments between the fiercest of rivals. Mild discomfort morphs into severe frostbite that costs a man his fingers and toes. And an analysis of where a climber might better have situated an upper altitude camp becomes an indictment of attempted murder. The best example is to compare The Green Berets versus Platoon. Both are about Vietnam; but one is quite a bit more realistic than the other. Similarly, Viesturs' modern updating makes for fascinating reading.
In a sense, K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain is a book written by a mountaineer for mountaineers. Afterall, Viesturs is telling the same story over and over again. But that is exactly what lends the book its magic. Though all of the expeditions shared the same goal, each followed its own unique course. In fact, I often felt as if Viesturs were describing a different mountain altogether. The lesson I took away from this outstanding piece of nonfiction is that K2 seemed to somehow alter its very topography to defeat the "strong-willed lads" and "noble fellows" who tried to conquer it.
And it succeeded much too often.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
 Worth the Climb November 19, 2009
Wayne A. Smith (Wilmington, DE)
Ed Viesturs has written a very good book on the history of climbing the world's second tallest mountain, K2.
Viesturs is very workmanlike in his prose and factual in his delivery. He avoids the type of self-aggrandizement that can make a reader wonder if a book "about me" is just the good parts (this book is partly about Viesturs, who climbed K2 and learned some valuable lessons). He is self-critical, which also tends to add credibility to a book involving self-reporting.
K2 does not loom large in the public mind, but towers over most other mountains in the minds of those who climb. It is four times deadlier than the storied Everest, technically more difficult and worth more in terms of bragging rights among mountaineers than notching the world's tallest mountain. While three years elapsed between the first and second ascents of Everest, twenty-three elapsed between the first and second conquests of K2.
Viesters traces a chronological history of the early attempts, failures and success of K2 efforts. He spends a significant amount of time on the 1938 and 1939 attempts. Weisner's 1939 attempt came within a couple of hundred feet of the summit but ended in disaster. Viesturs takes apart the expedition for diagnosis of what went wrong. He is not afraid to challenge a lot of prevailing views regarding the deficiencies of the leader, Fritz Weisner, and on the whole I think reaches a different opinion of where blame lays than many who have studied that event.
This is a good book that flows well and is easy to read. If you like mountaineering and adventure books, this is worth the climb.
Entertaining read about one of the world's most challenging mountains November 13, 2009
Monica J. Kern (Lexington, KY United States)
I first learned of Ed Viesturs from reading Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." At the time I was deeply impressed by his willingness to forgo his long-anticipated plans to make an Imax movie of his own summit attempt in order to help in the rescue and recovery efforts. I remember thinking to myself, "here's a down-to-earth guy with great integrity." After reading K2, that impression has only been strengthened.
Viesturs is one of handful of elite mountaineers active today, but he is so humble in his self-presentation that you wouldn't really know it from reading this book. He's also incredibly knowledgeable about mountain climbing in general and the history of summit attempts on K2 specifically.
After reading his description of the various expeditions, you're left with two primary reactions: (a) a feeling of awe and admiration for the brave men and women who battle such hardship, and confront so many risks, to climb that brutally unforgiving mountain, and (b) a realization that mountaineers are in many other respects just like everybody else... and there are selfish jerks in that community just as there are in sea-level communities. In that regard, the story of the explicit sabotage that took place in one expedition was particularly interesting, if discouraging.
This book is written in an enjoyable, informal style (albeit with an unmistakable "As told to..." tone). While I wish Viesturs had spent more time talking about his own summit, I can understand why he chose not to. I'll just have to head over to his other book about the trip and read that one, too. :)
 Great book! November 10, 2009
RRSII (Laredo, TX USA)
This book is awesome, it book puts mountaineering into true perspective. I purchased this book wanting to read about the disastrous 2008 K2 climbing season, and ended up getting so much more; the ambitious scope of this book ranges from climbing history to the current events in mountaineering, and so much more in between. Viesturs really draws you in to what happens on the mountain: how friendships are forged, how teams succeed and how they fail, and every other aspect of the climb. I have long fantasized of climbing in the Himalaya and Karakorum ranges, and though I still want to, this book sheds true light on how it can be, what to expect. This is the best account of mountaineering I have ever read, and as close to a mountaineering bible as I have come. Essential reading for any would-be climber, and also one hell of a book for anyone interested in an engaging read.
A detailed history of the world's most dangerous mountain November 8, 2009
James R. Hoadley (United States)
K2 is the world's second highest mountain and statistically the most dangerous. Ed Viesturs, the author, has been to the summit of Everest seven times, but K2 only once, and says he will never go back again. In this book, he gives great insight into why.
K2, much more than Everest, is the ultimate prize in mountaineering. And Viesturs does his best to explain why. The format of the book is roughly 1/3 a personal journal of his expert opinion on the mountain, and 2/3 a history of all the historic expeditions that have gone to the mountain, and their reasons for success or failure. The book suffers at some points from pacing and organizational issues. Viesturs shows that he is a major scholar of mountaineering in addition to being an legendary climber himself. The upside is the level of detail and insight he brings. The downside is that names and references are sometimes thrown around without enough guidance for those of us who are not at the same level of expertise. It feels a bit like the literary equivalent of being lost on an 8000 meter peak in a whiteout without "willow wands" to guide the reader to the next camp. Fortunately a reader can always go back and relocate the story path without the fear of falling off the mountain or freezing to death.
If you were introduced to the world of mountaineering literature by the writings of John Krakauer, this book -while generally solid- does not have the same level of writing flair. If you are a fan of mountaineering literature in general, this definitely belongs on your shelf, and not just because it was written by one of the world's greatest mountaineers.
Best Mountaineering Book I Have Ever Read November 4, 2009
Bruce Atlas (Whitestone, NY USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
K2: Life and Death.......... is the best mountaineering book I have ever read, and I have been reading them ever since Annapurna (Herzog)which I read shortly after it was published. K2:... seems to me to be the most honest and straight forward. (See particularly page 316) If that is not enough it is an easy and enjoyable read. I have already ordered Vestiers other book (No Short Cuts to the Top) anticipating a similiar enjoyable experience
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
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