K2 The Savage Mountain offered a fresh and honest literally account of the first American expedition to K2. A major contrast to a majority of the texts that we have read so far in this class, which highlighted individual glory and the pursuit of masculine adventure high in mountains as well as bringing pride and validation to a nation. Whereas in Charles S. Houston and Robert H. Bates account of their K2 expedition is a clear contradiction to the traditional mountaineering novel that we have traditionally read thus far. in past novels such as Imperial Ascent and Annapurna the novel centered around one man and his vainglorious pursuits to conquer the peaks of the world’s most iconic mountains in order to bring himself fame fortune and national pride. Often their accounts would reflect inaccurate accounts of various aspects of their expeditions and were often ridiculed or questioned after the fact on whether their account was authentic or not. This is not the case in The Savage Mountain which paints the men of the expedition in a brotherly light willing to die for their fellow mountaineer at a moments notice. One of the main tenants for selecting candidates for the American expedition was not just pure climbing skill but rather their attitudes and the persons character. in clear contrast of what other books revealed about the relations within the expedition in which there was usually a clear cut leader who held more status above all other climbers on the expedition regardless of their skill and otherwise technical savvy and leadership qualities on the mountain. Maurice Herzogg clearly made his ascent for purely individualistic purposes all at the expense of his team. Although the American Expedition doesn’t make it to the top of K2 they display their overall good-natured character as they refuse to leave any of their climbing comrades behind even severely risking their own lives in order to save their fellow mountaineers and friends.

Another aspect of this book that was drastically different was the treatment of the local people, the porters and their close friend Ata-Ullah. It seems that the Americans treat the Pakistani people with much more humility and respect than the Brittish did with the Nepalese. My initial thoughts on this difference was that America was not initially a colonist country and didn’t have a long expanded history of colonizing countries, therefore leading to their more accepting and tolerant attitude that the Members of the First American Karakoram expedition displayed when talking about their interactions and relations with the native populations. The Americans very much considered Col Ata-Ullah as important of a member too their team as any of the mountaineers, and even went on to describe their great admiration for him as a friend and equal. I can’t say the same for how Tenzing Norgay and his fellow sherpas were treated by the Brittish in their ascent of Mt Everest. Multiple time Tenzing expresses his frustrations that he had with the British and their underestimation of him and his team of sherpas skills, not to mention their less than desirable living and sleeping conditions when not at base camp. The difference between the American K2 expedition and other previous high profiled expeditions was that the American expedition was focused primarily not on individualistic pursuits, but accomplishing the feat as a team. Their overall attitudes towards the climb and their views of the native people were incredibly contrasted to a majority of mountaineering novels published at the time.