No Way Down: Life and Death on K2

(Paperback)

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Description

The runaway bestseller - hailed as a successor to Into Thin Air and Touching the Void The summit of K2, 1 August 2008. An exhausted band of climbers pump their fists into the clear blue sky - joining the elite who have conquered the world's most lethal mountain. But as they celebrate, far below them an ice shelf collapses and sweeps away their ropes. They don't know it yet, but they will be forced to descend into the blackness with no lines. Of the thirty who set out, eleven will never make it back. No Way Down weaves a tale of human courage, folly, survival and devastating loss. The stories are heart-wrenching- the young married couple whose rope was torn apart by an avalanche, sending the husband to his death; the 61-year-old Frenchman who called his family from near the summit to say he wouldn't make it home. So what drove them to try to conquer this elusive peak And what went wrong that fateful day

Reviews

Riveting and powerful; an extraordinary story of an extraordinary tragedy. Reading No Way Down is the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day -- Sir Ranulph Fiennes
A gripping hour-by-hour dissection of events in the Western Himalaya over three deadly days... a fitting shelfmate to the modern classic Into Thin Air -- Brian Schofield * Sunday Times *
Stories of heroism, sadness and extraordinary endurance against all the odds are woven into a thrilling drama -- Christopher Hudson * Daily Mail *
Unputdownable... a portrait of extreme courage, folly and loss, leavened by a small dose of survival' * Financial Times *
Artfully and assiduously pieces together an account of a fractious day in brutal real time. Fatality by fatality... devastating * New York Times *
A tour de force of a book...a triumph of storytelling * Associated Press *
Probably the best mountain-disaster memoir since Into Thin Air * Mail on Sunday *
One of the best books I've ever read. But take it to the beach at your peril - it's impossible to put down. Sunburn is guaranteed * Outdoor Science *

Author Bio

Graham Bowley was born in England in 1968. He is a reporter for the New York Times. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and their two daughters and son.