Book Review of “No Way Down”
Bryant Lymburn
Historically climbing has segregated certain peaks towards certain countries who possessed the drive and means to climb them. Mount Everest was segregated to British control, Annapurna to the French, Masherbrum to the Germans, and K2 to the Italians and Americans. Each of these 8000 meter peaks possess a great challenge in climbing and mountaineering. They require the greatest skill and preparation to be able to summit successfully and survive. The death rate for many these mountains run in the range of one out of every ten climbers will die in the attempt to reach the summit of these mountains. One of the most infamous, notoriously difficult and deadly to climb has become the stunning and prominent pyramid of K2. K2 has driven back climbers for many years and is the sight of one of mountaineering’s greatest stories of “The Belay.” It is this mountain which continues to draw climbers in and torture them on their entire journey. It is here in which another disaster has taken place in more recent years. In the climbing season of 2008 a total of eleven climbers, HAP, and Sherpa all lost their lives in a three day period. This event marked one of the worst mountaineering disasters in history and it is here in which the book “No Way Down” takes place. In order to be as accurate as possible the author, Graham Bowley, has conducted countless interviews with people who were climbing / on the mountain and with those who were close family members during the time of the incident. Here he pieces together each story to write what can accurately be said about what happened that summer.
In the summer of 2008 there was a large climbing attempt underway on the mountain of K2. Teams included those from Korea, Netherlands, USA, and a few other smaller groups and individuals. After successfully making their way up the mountain to camp four all were in position to make a summit attempt on Friday, August 1st. The day fell luckily on unheard of climbing weather. Clear skies, little to no wind, and a sun so strong climbers became hot for even being at 26000 feet or above. Almost all who set out that day would reach the summit, however it was the way down that claimed most of the casualties over the next two days. It is here where we must analyze what went wrong and the order of events that later unfolded.
Normally when climbing K2 it is desired to reach the summit between 12PM and 3PM, but this was not the case for most climbers that day. This factor of time can be seen as the main reason for so many casualties. How peoples actions and presence affected this “time” is the real question. First reason that can be seen is in the factor of too many people were climbing at once. On that Friday about 25 climbers set out for a summit bid. Each group would provide rope and Sherpa/HAP to help secure a route up the bottleneck and traverse below the Hanging Glacier. As the ropes were set climbers quickly caught up to the Sherpa/HAP that were setting the rope and a backup down the mountain was created. Also some members of the Korean team had a difficult and time consuming effort to scale an ice lip above the traverse. And eventually the rope ran out towards the top of the traverse so lower sections had to be cut and carried to be resecured. All these events caused a great deal of lost time and made the summit bid outside of the desired window.
Most of this time delay can be attributed to the lack of communication on the mountain. Yes there was a radio channel dedicated to be used by all parties, but due to the size of the Korean expedition it soon became overwhelmed with Korean communications. On Friday, due to the fair weather, many climbers left their radios or satellite phones at camp four. This limited means of communication would later leave many climbers stranded and unable to contact anyone down below for help. The lack of communication can also be evolved into there not being an appropriate authoritative figure on the mountain to give hard leadership or directions for others to follow. This lack of leadership makes it so the Sherpa/HAP began to lay rope too early on the slope below the bottleneck, and climbers beginning to climb too late in the day for a proper summit bid. Proper leadership also would have prevented many from making summit attempts due to climbers missing the appropriate time window. Being up the mountain earlier and down off the summit earlier would/could have prevented a great number of deaths that weekend.
However there is the over laying fact that tends to happen while climbing these mountains that no individual could ever predict. There are many ways to describe this, but is commonly referred to as “Shit Happens.” This weekend is a perfect example of how “shit” can happen while climbing. The first two casualties on that Friday were very odd and preventable occurrences. First was a Sherpa who fell from the traverse and tumble to his death onto the ice field below, while the second was a Sherpa whom hardly attempted to stop his slide while assisting in getting the body of the first Sherpa down. Each case is a “simple” fall with dire consequences. Later in the day however is when everything goes awry. Do to the intense sun creating warm conditions and climbers climbing later than expected exposing them to unfavorable positions. This combination created conditions where the massive serac of the Hanging Glacier was beginning to become unstable. Ice falls severed the lines on the traverse trapping many climbers with no direct or known route down in the dark. It later was the cause of avalanches which intern caused the deaths of at least six climbers.
All in all the eleven climbers that perished that weekend were the victims of a multitude of factors. Time is precious, especially when climbing in the death zone on such a tall peak. Communication can help save lives and set you up for success or failure if the authoritative figures do not interact appropriately. And even if everything does go smoothly and according to plan there is always the unpredictable nature of the mountains.
Too many people / inexperience
miss communication
no real leadership to the first day.
Poor luck / shit happens