Here’s an honest
admission: I’m not much of a climber. When holidaying in Nainital, I
often take a cab to go from the Mall Road up to whatever hotel I happen
to be staying in, usually not more than 2-3km away. Forget about
mountains, I even take the elevator when going up to my apartment, which
is on the 2nd floor of the building I currently live in. And yet, I do
have this strange fascination for reading about adventures in climbing,
of great exploits in extreme mountaineering. Real accounts of people
risking life and limb to get to the top of some piece of rock. I mean,
getting to the top of something like Mount Everest or K2 entails
suffering extreme physical hardship, tolerating intense cold and
freezing winds, facing difficulties in breathing due to lack of adequate
oxygen and coming to terms with extreme dangers that include the risk
of losing toes and fingers to frostbite. And, of course, there's the
ever-present risk of death. More than scaring the hell out of me, which
it certainly does, extreme mountaineering leaves me confused. It’s
simply incomprehensible to me. Why do it at all?!? But I guess that is
what separates a couch potato like me from mountaineering heroes, the
people who have astonishing courage, the sheer indomitable will to
achieve something that is impossible for 99.99% of the rest of us.
In the context of the above, I just finished reading ‘Ghosts of K2,’ a terrific book by author Mick Conefrey, who has laid out the saga of how people started trying to climb K2 in the early 20th century and how an Italian team became the first to summit the great, savage mountain in the 1950s. Many tried, most failed, some died. Even for those who succeeded, controversies dogged them for the rest of their lives. But the story of the sheer effort – the planning, the massive resources, the logistics, the manpower, the technology – required to go up a mountain like K2, and actually getting to the summit, is simply brilliant. It’s a story that unfolds over many decades and Conefrey has done a very good job of telling that story. If you are at all interested in mountaineering – or even stories of extreme adventures of any kind - I’d suggest you get a copy of this book. The paperback is available on Amazon, for a mere Rs 375.
In the context of the above, I just finished reading ‘Ghosts of K2,’ a terrific book by author Mick Conefrey, who has laid out the saga of how people started trying to climb K2 in the early 20th century and how an Italian team became the first to summit the great, savage mountain in the 1950s. Many tried, most failed, some died. Even for those who succeeded, controversies dogged them for the rest of their lives. But the story of the sheer effort – the planning, the massive resources, the logistics, the manpower, the technology – required to go up a mountain like K2, and actually getting to the summit, is simply brilliant. It’s a story that unfolds over many decades and Conefrey has done a very good job of telling that story. If you are at all interested in mountaineering – or even stories of extreme adventures of any kind - I’d suggest you get a copy of this book. The paperback is available on Amazon, for a mere Rs 375.