K I I: The Deadliest Day (Mountain Mania Book 5)

Book Synopsis: What does the 2008 disaster on the world’s deadliest mountain have in common with the 1996 disaster on Mount Everest? It certainly wasn’t the weather in this instance, and if it wasn’t the weather, what was it? Who are the villains [if any] of the Savage Mountain? If journalists profoundly undermined the efforts of Fischer and Hall in 1996, what sinister motives [if any] undermined the 30+ climbers who made their summit bid on August 1, 2008? Climbing voyeurs and aficionados of Alpinism will find K II an addictive read. If the world’s two tallest mountains are sisters, Everest suffers from increasing congestion, while the world’s second highest mountain is often overlooked. But now attention is shifting to K II. Is K II the next Everest? In K II the bestselling author of NEVEREST applies the same recipe of extensive research, surgical analysis, pattern recognition and intuition to solve the riddle of the savage siren. How did 11 experienced climbers lose their lives on “the perfect day”; a day described by Frederik Strang as “one in a million”? What happened? How and why is K II such a capricious peak, and what fatal flaw does she tend to expose in those who try to reach the world’s most dangerous summit? Van der Leek provides the reader with an intimate experience, taking the reader onto the mountain, teaching the reader the ropes and showing the reader exactly what climbers on K II have to watch out for when they ‘run the gauntlet’. The musculature and the moods of K II are totally different to Everest, indeed, K II stands apart from other mountains for her sheer deadliness. How does one climb such a monster? Is climbing K II likely to become easier or more difficult in the future? How does K II’s more northerly setting alter her temperament? K II, like NEVEREST, is a narrative imbued with a visceral realism. Using links to real-time blogs posts, and actual archives documenting the tragedy [including video, controversial Italian climber Marco Confortola’s sworn testimony and Norway’s official report] van der Leek pieces together what really went down in 2008. Van der Leek’s own father visited the Baltoro glacier [one of the world’s largest] as well as K II’s lunar-like Base Camp. The author races through extensive on-the-ground reports, photographs and descriptions by people who were there thus rendering this thrilling, yet disturbing, account. While it isn’t the author’s intention to accuse climbers for failing to come to the aid of their fellow climbers, it is his intention to ask why – once off the mountain – climbers make claims that they did, when they didn’t. The author poses a discomforting question which permeates the cosmic Karakorum wilderness: do climbers really expect to be recognised as heroes when they reach a summit at the expense of their friends and fellow climbers? Should we treat climbers who summit as heroes despite the tremendous toll it takes? Is our hero worship of these guys effectively sponsoring and perpetuating our own disturbing narcissism, or simply reflecting it? Just how heroic are these climbers when their stories of survival don’t add up under scrutiny. Should we celebrate their achievements as pure and good, or are their motives on and off the mountain the same? At the end of the day, are people dying and lying because of vanity? And is it this avarice that the savage mountain exposes?

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