Book News September 2011

Early last month an expedition that took years of planning was launched on K2, arguably the most hostile mountain in the Himalayas. Gerfried Göshl's 8000plus K2 Expedition came barely a month after his team's victory on Gasherbrum 1 (8080m). Stormy wind conditions drove them back from the departure to the summit of K2. Göschl's team report said:

 

Clock to 2.30 (pak.Zeit) we have waited, but the wind was too strong. After two attempts in 2009 and 2007, Gerfried now failed for the third time in the giant K2! 

The climbers are currently in descent, still at base camp. I'm going to order the carriers to march, we want to go home as soon as possible.

Exactly three years before Göschl's latest attempt, on 1 August 2008, a series of disasters struck on K2, beginning with the death of a Serbian climber, Dren Mandic. Then, when thirty climbers were descending an ice shelf from the summit, the shelf collapsed, sweeping away their ropes. It was dark, their lines were gone and they were dangerously low on oxygen. It was also getting very, very cold. How many could hope to make it down alive?

This month sees the release in Encounters of Graham Bowley's spine-chilling account of those fateful events. No Way Down is an enthralling story of extreme endurance, folly and loss, heroism, and a harrowing fight for survival.

To read a riveting extract from our Encounters edition of No Way Down, click here.