K2: Challenging the Sky

by Roberto Mantovani and Kurt Diemberger

Book Overview

"An almost perfect cone, incredibly high”, a mountain so breathtakingly beautiful as to leave Colonel Francis Younghusband, the first European to breach the Old Muztag Pass in 1887, quite literally... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898865182
• ISBN13: 9780898865189
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 141 Pages
• Weight: 3.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 10.4" x 14.3"

Customer Reviews

Spectacular photos of K2 and descriptions of the first ascent attempts and all significant climbs si

A beautiful coffee-table type book with spectacular photos and good information mostly from Kurt Diemberger's book Endless Knot. The book covers the history of climbing K2 from the earliest explorations up to the latest ascents completed in the 1990s. Kurt Diemberger: A mountain as large and difficult as K2, with its height of 8,616 metres, and its unusually steep faces, and absolute atmospheric variability, is a whole "stage" higher than other 8,000-metre peaks in the Karakoram. Even though it cannot match Everest for its height, K2 is far more dangerous. Here even the very best climbers are tested to the limit. The mass climbing which is now common to most of the "lesser" 8000-metre peaks (and the classic Everest route), has no place on Quogir, "the Big Mountain". Otherwise the death toll could only increase.

Photographic Masterpiece

K2 is an endlessly fascinating. Beautiful and cruel, savage and mighty, mysterious and far away - seen by few and successfully ascended by even fewer - it draws and repels simultaneously.Robert Mantovani does a superb job on the magnificent photographs, all in color, beautifully sharp and clear. The vistas and detail take your breath away. A special commendation goes to Patricia Lovicetti, the Graphic Designer. At [item price], it is a bargain at twice the price. It is a BIG book (10" x 14"), so it will need a place of honor on the coffee table.Most of the text is from Kurt Diemberger's previously published "Endless Knot" (though this fact is not mentioned in the book). However, the pictures are well captioned and informative. Mr. Diemberger is a legend, the only man living with two first ascents of 8,000-meter mountains to his credit. He is also is among the elite few who have successfully ascended and descended K2, though at terrible personal cost. (See "Endless Knot")This book would be a terrific gift to a climbing enthusiast or just as a wonderful indulgence to yourself!

Excellent photos, Rich in History

If you've read all the classic historical books of ascents on K2 except this one, your library is incomplete. The power of this book is in part within it's outstanding photography and also has to do with how well it pulls so much information together. This is a complex mountain but the information is presented clearly such that one feels more comfortable with the different sides of the mountain and their challenges to the climber.

Gorgeous pictures, somewhat dry text

-although the text may just have suffered in the translations. If you want to see the single best collection of K2 photographs I've ever seen, and I have them all, this is the book for you. A bargain at anything less than about $250.00, it's bound and published beautifully (at least my copy was!)

Marvellous pictures. You instantly dream to be there.

This book is a very good one. I found it to be the best companion (for the beautiful photos in large format e for showing clearly the several attempted routes on K2) to another 5-star book, "K2, Triumph and Tragedy". Bravo Roberto Mantovani!