K2 : Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs – Coming October 2009 – Pre-order your copy today!”

About the Author :

Ed Viesturs become the first American climber to reach the summit of all the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, in May, 2005. This May, he summited Everest for the 7th time.

He is the first American, and 12th person overall, to summit all fourteen mountains over 8000 meters (collectively known as the eight-thousanders), and the sixth climber to do it without bottled oxygen.

* Ed Viesturs homepage : – http://www.edviesturs.com/

* see – Ed Viesturs the famous American climber

ABOUT THIS BOOK :

A thrilling chronicle of the tragedy-ridden history of climbing K2, the world’s most difficult and unpredictable mountain, by the bestselling author 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 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.

* Source : – http://www.randomhouse.com/

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

About the Author :

Ed Viesturs become the first American climber to reach the summit of all the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, in May, 2005. This May, he summited Everest for the 7th time.

He is the first American, and 12th person overall, to summit all fourteen mountains over 8000 meters (collectively known as the eight-thousanders), and the sixth climber to do it without bottled oxygen.

* Ed Viesturs homepage : - http://www.edviesturs.com/

* see – Ed Viesturs the famous American climber

Publisher Comments:

This gripping and triumphant memoir follows a living legend of extreme mountaineering as he makes his assault on history, one 8,000-meter summit at a time.

For eighteen years Ed Viesturs pursued climbing’s holy grail: to stand atop the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.

A preternaturally cautious climber who once turned back 300 feet from the top of Everest but who would not shrink from a peak (Annapurna) known to claim the life of one climber for every two who reached its summit, Viesturs lives by an unyielding motto, “Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” It is with this philosophy that he vividly describes fatal errors in judgment made by his fellow climbers as well as a few of his own close calls and gallant rescues. And, for the first time, he details his own pivotal and heroic role in the 1996 Everest disaster made famous in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air.

In addition to the raw excitement of Viesturs’s odyssey, No Shortcuts to the Top is leavened with many funny moments revealing the camaraderie between climbers. It is more than the first full account of one of the staggering accomplishments of our time; it is a portrait of a brave and devoted family man and his beliefs that shaped this most perilous and magnificent pursuit.

Review:

“In the opening scene of Viesturs’s memoir of his quest to become the first American to climb the 14 mountains in the world higher than 8,000 meters, he and a friend nearly get thrown off the face of K2 when they’re caught in an avalanche. It’s one of the few moments in the story when his life genuinely seems at risk, as his intense focus on safety is generally successful. ‘Getting to the top is optional,’ he warns. ‘Getting down is mandatory.’ That lesson comes through most forcefully when Viesturs recounts how he almost attempted to reach the summit at Everest the day before the group Jon Krakauer wrote about in Into Thin Air, but backed out because it just didn’t feel right. His expertise adds a compelling eyewitness perspective to those tragic events, but the main focus is clearly on Viesturs and his self-imposed ‘Endeavor 8000.’ From his earliest climbs on the peaks of the Pacific Northwest to his final climb up the Himalayan mountain of Annapurna, Viesturs offers testimony to the sacrifices (personal and professional) in giving your life over to a dream, as well as the thrill of seeing it through.” Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

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In 1976 legendary climber Major Michael ‘Bronco’ Lane joined the first all-military expedition to climb Mount Everest.

Michael 'Bronco' Lane reached the summit of Mount Everest on the 16th May 1976 with fellow partner John 'Brummie' Stokes while on the Joint British Army & Royal Nepalese Army Everest Expedition. Bronco then went on to be leader of the 1983 Special Air Service Regiment Everest Expedition.

‘Bronco Lane is an exceptional soldier whose spirit of adventure and readiness to take risks has led him to the most extreme and dangerous places on earth - including the summit of Mt. Everest.’ - General Michael Rose.

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.