No Way Down: Life and Death on K2

By Graham Bowley

Book Overview

" No Way Down is both a gripping read and a clear-eyed investigation of the hubris, politics, and bad luck that brought on one of the worst disasters in modern mountaineering history." -- Michael Kodas, author of High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed "Graham Bowley's No Way Down does a great job of putting you on the mountain. It is a refreshingly unadorned account of the true brutality of climbing K2, where heroes emerge and egos are stripped down, and the only thing achieving immortality is the cold ruthless mountain." -- Norman Ollestad, author of Crazy for the Storm In the tradition of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void, No Way Down by New York Times reporter Graham Bowley is the harrowing account of the worst mountain climbing disaster on K2, second to Everest in height... but second to no peak in terms of danger. From tragic deaths to unbelievable stories of heroism and survival, No Way Down is an amazing feat of storytelling and adventure writing, and, in the words of explorer and author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, "the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061834785
• ISBN13: 9780061834783
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Hang on Tight

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.

Hard to Put Down

No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 is a poignant book in the spirit of Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Bowley tells the story of ten teams and eleven lives lost in a riveting tale of the dramatic events that took place on one of the deadliest 8000 meter peaks of the world. For any reader who enjoys Outside Magazine, is a climber at heart or just an adventurer Graham Bowley does an excellent job telling the story of what it must be like to climb one of the world's most coveted mountain peaks. Through a series of interviews Bowley tells the story of these lost lives and most importantly leaves off the criticism of guided climbing, a true narrative and highly recommended.

Very engrossing. I enjoyed it very much.

I learned about and was intrigued by the book when I read the lukewarm review in the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ reviewer noted the author was not a climber so got some details wrong. However, I bought the book and enjoyed it very much, finishing it in a single weekend.I highly recommend this book!

A post-mortem and an adventure story.

This book gives you the sense that you are on the mountain, facing the struggle, and also a sense that you are in a laboratory, taking apart the decisions and the details and finding out why things went so wrong, so badly, on K-2. I picked up the book and started reading it out loud to my son. After he went to bed, I stayed up and read half the night. This is very compelling. How could they have (fill in the blank -- failed to secure the ropes, put so many people on the mountain at once, not thought through a Plan B) -- this book looks at every instance. You get a sense that the problem was, in part, too many cooks and no one controlling wisdom. You get the sense that K-2 is a bad place for an amateur climber. Some of the people stand out for their bravery. It was a very bad day on K-2. This is a very good book about that bad day.