Book review: Chronicle of an expedition gone wrong

No Way Down: Life And Death On K2
Graham Bowley
Penguin
Rs499
254 pages

In the rarefied circles of professional mountaineers, Everest is sneered at — after all, thousands of people have reached its summit already. The tough one, the big challenge, is K2, which requires real skill and toughness to conquer. As of July 2008, only 276 people had managed to reach the summit, and 22 of those have died climbing down.

In August of that year, however, more than 70 climbers, belonging to a dozen countries, had begun to scale K2. The climbers were grouped into expeditions ranging from the odd single man from the Basque region of Spain, to the 15-strong South Korean group. They had pooled resources amongst themselves, worked out the order in which they’d get to the summit, and established friendships along the way. One day before the final summit ascent, however, things began to go wrong. An ice shelf overhanging the route began to crack. A few people in the queue found the going too tough, delaying everyone behind them. Porters forgot to bring along critical equipment.

No Way Down tells us what happened next: No less than 11 people died over the next day or so in a series of hair-raising accidents. Graham Bowley chronicles just how dangerous mountaineering is, just how many things can go wrong, and how victory can turn into defeat in a split-second. All it takes is one small error — a frayed rope, a missed signal — and a life is lost.
Bowley’s research gives us an insider’s view into the minds of the players. Like the best athletes in any sport, the physical and mental rigour of mountain climbing is a way of life for them. We also see the intricate planning and execution that go into setting up a mountaineering expedition.

The book relies heavily on eyewitness accounts. In his introduction, he mentions that there were several conflicting stories told by the people he interviewed, and other incidents for which there were no witnesses. Rather than speculate on the absolute truth, Bowley put down the story as close to the available data as possible. This makes for a few frustrating moments for a reader used to fiction — no final musings of dying characters! — but gives the book the ring of truth.

One shortcoming of the book is the limited number of interviewees. While it wouldn’t have been possible to interview everyone present, two segments seem to have been overlooked: the large South Korean expedition, and the porters. People from other expeditions point out that the South Koreans’ slow ascent caused a lot of trouble as the day went on. So it was all the more important to explain their point of view. Bowley has an unsatisfactory interview with just one person in the group.

The porters are a more interesting group. In an account of a 1954 Italian expedition, Bowley mentions that it comprised 17 ‘climbers’ and observers, and over 500 porters! It’s logical to assume that there were many local porters carrying the supplies for the mountaineers here, too — but their viewpoint is barely covered in the book.

No Way Down, despite its focus on tragedy, captures the thrill of the heights and open spaces. Bowley mentions that nearly all of the survivors of K2 continued to join other expeditions - in the Himalayas, in Antarctica, in Europe.

Anyone who’s ever looked at a picture of snow-clad mountains and sighed dreamily knows exactly why.