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  • K2

  • Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain
  • Written by: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
  • Narrated by: Fred Sanders
  • Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (28 ratings)

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K2

Written by: Ed Viesturs, David Roberts
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
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Publisher's Summary

A thrilling chronicle of the tragedy-ridden history of climbing K2, the world's most difficult and unpredictable mountain, by the bestselling authors of No Shortcuts to the Top

At 28,251 feet, the world's second-tallest mountain, K2 thrusts skyward out of the Karakoram Range of northern Pakistan. Climbers regard it as the ultimate achievement in mountaineering, with good reason. Four times as deadly as Everest, K2 has claimed the lives of seventy-seven climbers since 1954. In August 2008 eleven climbers died in a single thirty-six-hour period on K2–the worst single-event tragedy in the mountain's history and the second-worst in the long chronicle of mountaineering in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges. Yet summiting K2 remains a cherished goal for climbers from all over the globe. Before he faced the challenge of K2 himself, Ed Viesturs, one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers, thought of it as "the holy grail of mountaineering."

In K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain, Viesturs explores the remarkable history of the mountain and of those who have attempted to conquer it. At the same time he probes K2's most memorable sagas in an attempt to illustrate the lessons learned by confronting the fundamental questions raised by mountaineering–questions of risk, ambition, loyalty to one's teammates, self-sacrifice, and the price of glory. Viesturs knows the mountain firsthand. He and renowned alpinist Scott Fischer climbed it in 1992 and were nearly killed in an avalanche that sent them sliding to almost certain death. Fortunately, Ed managed to get into a self-arrest position with his ice ax and stop both his fall and Scott' s.

Focusing on seven of the mountain's most dramatic campaigns, from his own troubled ascent to the 2008 tragedy, Viesturs and Roberts crafts an edge-of-your-seat narrative that climbers and armchair travelers alike will find unforgettably compelling. With photographs from Viesturs's personal collection and from historical sources, this is the definitive account of the world's ultimate mountain, and of the lessons that can be gleaned from struggling toward its elusive summit.

©2009 Ed Viesturs and David Roberts (P)2009 Random House

What the critics say

“Riveting . . . Viesturs illuminates K2’s challanges, triumphs, tragedies, and follies.”The Daily Beast


“Viesturs’s you-are-there narration communicates effortlessly the enormous effort, and high adventure, of scaling K2.”Publishers Weekly

What listeners say about K2

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Humble Brags!

A book filled with Ed Viesturs' humble brags. At times it felt way too editorialized.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Ed Viesturs is a climbing godfather

He's brutally honest about climbing and safety, and is known as one of the safest mountaineers around. Someone reviewed the book as arrogant. Thats not evident at all. He is arguably the guy to dissect climbing disasters or successes, and he does it humbly and bluntly. Excellent book.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Don’t waste your time , dry boring and writer is way too smug.

This book is all over the place , jumps from one climb to the next and the biggest letdown is the storytelling is dry and boring. And honestly the writer grates on my nerves. The book should be called “Ed’s Morally Superior Book of endless self-congratulations”. Anyone who’s done anything...Ed’s done it too and BETTER! Ugh can’t believe I wasted a book credit on this. I thought I would like it because I really liked Kraukeurs book but this one is not near as good as that one. In short, there’s better mountain story books out there. Don’t waste your time or money on this one.

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so entertaining!

This was my first audible book, but not my first mountaineering book by far. One of my favourite genres and this did not disappoint. Amazing adventure, terrifying accidents and great story telling. The narrator does an amazing job as well.

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What is YOUR story

I bought this book Ed to know YOUR story on K2. not to learn what happened in the last 100 years

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