No Way Down Life and Death on K2 |
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| Author:
| Bowley, Graham |
| ISBN: | 978-0-670-91843-0 |
| Publication Date: | Aug 2010 |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books, Limited
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| Imprint: | Viking |
| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | AUD $32.95 |
Book Description:
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The summit of K2. 1st August 2008. An exhausted band of climbers pump their fists into the clear blue sky - joining the elite who have conquered the world's most lethal mountain. But as they celebrate, far below them an ice shelf collapses and sweeps away their ropes. They don't know it yet, but they will be forced to descend into the blackness with no lines. Of the 30 who set out, 11 will never make it back.
Following the stories of climbers from around the world, No Way...
More Description
The summit of K2. 1st August 2008. An exhausted band of climbers pump their fists into the clear blue sky - joining the elite who have conquered the world's most lethal mountain. But as they celebrate, far below them an ice shelf collapses and sweeps away their ropes. They don't know it yet, but they will be forced to descend into the blackness with no lines. Of the 30 who set out, 11 will never make it back.
Following the stories of climbers from around the world, No Way Downweaves a tale of human courage, folly, survival, and devastating loss. The stories are heart-wrenching- the young married couple whose rope was torn apart by an avalanche, sending the husband to his death; the 61 year-old Frenchman who called his family from near the summit to say he wouldn't make it home. So what drove them to try to conquer this elusive peak? And what went wrong that fateful day?
'unputdownable... a portrait of extreme courage, folly and loss, leavened by a small dose of survival . . . as complete a version of the calamitous story as will probably ever emerge' Financial Times
'No Way Downartfully and assiduously pieces together an account of a fractious day in brutal real time. Fatality by fatality . . . devastating' New York Times
'A tour de force of a book . . . a triumph of storytelling' Associated Press
'Brisk and engrossing . . . Bowley reveals a deep sympathy for his characters and their quest' Wall Street Journal
'Thrilling and wrenching . . . Bowley is a gifted storyteller' Kirkus
'Riveting and powerful; an extraordinary story of an extraordinary tragedy. Reading No Way Downis the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day' Sir Ranulph Fiennes
'A page-turning, utterly fresh take on the mountaineering experience, an Into Thin Airfor a new century of adventurers, about a mountain even more treacherous than Everest' Doug Stanton, author of Horse Soldiers