No Way Down
Life and Death on K2
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4.2 • 18 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
THE GRIPPING, TERRIFYING STORY OF A BRUTAL STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL ON THE UPPER SLOPES OF THE HIMALAYAN K2, THE WORLD'S MOST HOSTILE TERRAIN.
'Unputdownable. A portrait of extreme courage, folly and loss, leavened by a small dose of survival' Financial Times
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K2, August 1st, 2008.
Thirty climbers are attempting the summit of the most savage mountain on Earth. They make it. But before they start their descent an ice shelf collapses, sweeping away their ropes. It is dark. Their lines are gone. They are low on oxygen. And it is getting very, very cold.
How many will make it down alive?
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'A gripping hour-by-hour dissection of events in the Western Himalayas over three deadly days. A fitting shelfmate to the modern classic Into Thin Air. A cracking read' Sunday Times
'The best mountain-disaster memoir since Into Thin Air' Mail on Sunday
'Stories of heroism, sadness and extraordinary endurance against all the odds [are] woven into a thrilling drama' Daily Mail
Customer Reviews
No Way Down- Life and Death on K2
A truly frightening story of what can go wrong on a mountaineering expedition. I couldn't put this book down, just like 'Into Thin Air', the book captures the tragedy of loss, and the unforgiving terror that 8,000 metre mountains can unleash at any time, without warning. K2 has been put into perspective for me by this book, like many 8,000 thousanders, high altitudes, lack of oxygen and the push for the summit, seemingly at any cost, costs lives. One thing that still puzzles me is why people refuse to accept they cannot summit safely and yet continue to the summit, placing themselves and others at mortal risk. Surely arriving on the summit of K2 in the evening and descending in the dark was asking for trouble? Only one of the climbers, Alberto Zerain, made it to the summit and descended in daylight, he survived, and he realised early on that the rest of the expeditions would never make it back safely in time. The question remains, 'Why did they continue to the summit?'