K2 Triumph and Tragedy

Curran, Jim

ISBN 10: 0340415266 / ISBN 13: 9780340415269

Published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1988

About this Item

8vo, pictorial dust jacket over blue boards with silver gilt titles on spine. Un-price-clipped jacket in very good plus condition, small sticker mark on inside. Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page. Previous owner?s name handwritten on front pastedown. Second printing. 219pp, illustrated with maps and photographs of the mountain, landscape and climbers.

Seller Inventory # 3028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: K2 Triumph and Tragedy
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, London
• Publication Date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340415266
• ISBN 13: 9780340415269
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very good +
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good +
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Sport & Pastimes

About this title

Synopsis

K2, "the savage mountain", is the second-highest peak in the world - and the most difficult to climb. In 1986, it was the site of both dazzling triumph and great loss as twenty-seven men and women reached the top but thirteen died trying. To this day it remains the single greatest tragedy in the history of mountaineering. Curran was there to record it all in words and photographs: courage and obsession, luminous success and thwarted ambition.

Review

Before the 1996 Everest disaster made that mountain synonymous with tragedy at 8,000 meters, there was K2. More technical in most routes than Everest, the world's second-highest peak is considered the ultimate achievement by many mountaineers. In 1986 K2 claimed the lives of 13 climbers in nine different parties attempting its summit. Author Jim Curran was on the mountain during the ordeal, and through narrative and photographs, Curran documents the sagas of success, failure, and tragedy in a fateful year that captured the world's attention. Alongside the terror of avalanches, crevasses, and horrific storms are stories of bravery and the indomitable human spirit.