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    The Endless Knot: K2 Mountain of Dreams and Destiny
    Unavailable
    The Endless Knot: K2 Mountain of Dreams and Destiny
    Unavailable
    The Endless Knot: K2 Mountain of Dreams and Destiny
    Ebook471 pages9 hours

    The Endless Knot: K2 Mountain of Dreams and Destiny

    By Kurt Diemberger

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    'A monumental book … I defy anyone to read it and remain unmoved.' Stephen Venables, Alpine Journal Acclaimed as one of the most powerful accounts of mountain adventure and tragedy ever written, The Endless Knot is a harrowing account of the 1986 K2 disaster. A rare first-hand account from a survivor at the very epicentre of the drama, The Endless Knot describes the disaster in frank detail. Kurt Diemberger's account of the final days of success, accident, storm and escape during which five climbers died, including his partner Julie Tullis and the great British mountaineer Al Rouse, is lacerating in its sense of tragedy, loss and dogged survival. Only Diemberger and Willi Bauer escaped the mountain. K2 had claimed the lives of 13 climbers that summer. Kurt Diemberger is one of only two climbers to have made first ascents of two 8000-metre peaks, Broad Peak and Dhaulagiri. A superb mountaineer, the K2 trauma left him physically and emotionally ravaged, but it also marked him out as an instinctive and tenacious survivor. After a long period of recovery Diemberger published The Endless Knot and resumed life as a mountaineer, filmmaker and international lecturer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVertebrate Digital
    Release dateAug 29, 2014
    ISBN9781910240038
    Unavailable
    The Endless Knot: K2 Mountain of Dreams and Destiny
    Author

    Kurt Diemberger

    Austrian mountaineer Kurt Diemberger is a member of an extremely select club – he is one of only two climbers to have made the first ascent of two of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks: Broad Peak in 1957 and Dhaulagiri in 1960. Diemberger is also one of the top high-altitude filmmakers in the world and an accomplished writer, and his books – including The Endless Knot, about the 1986 K2 disaster – have enjoyed popularity around the globe. He is now recognised as one of the finest chroniclers of the contemporary mountain scene, with his writing guaranteed to enlighten, move and entertain. In 2013, Diemberger was awarded the Piolet d’Ors lifetime achievement award.

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    Reviews for The Endless Knot

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    • 4/5
      At times, the author loses his train of thought, and it is difficult to know what he is talking about. I guess that mimics his thinking at high altitudes. Overall an enjoyable book.
    • 4/5
      The perspective Diemberger gives on the 1986 K2 disaster is somewhat limited, since he focuses on a first-person narrative without much context or analysis. But it is a gripping story. While it doesn't quite explain why Diemberger climbs, it certainly shows his obsession. > The black barrel incubating our beer is a source of great interest to the whole village. Time and again someone will come, talk about the weather, K2 and the route – and then, casting an innocent glance in the direction of the barrel, enquire on the state of the brew. Willi Bauer insists on regular tastings to monitor its progress, so that we assume he must have been a food chemist in some other incarnation. Finally, our beer is ready and turns out to be a foaming, overwhelming success. From as far away as Chogolisa, people arrive to talk about the weather … A good thing Julie brought along a second beer kit> With [the porter] Musheraf it was rather more difficult: he had an incredible talent for invention when it came to explanations of what had become of our ski-sticks: they fell into crevasses, into mountain streams, they rolled down the steep slopes – but he was such a fantastic man, so full of energy for our climbs, and again and again would generously bring us fresh apples from his village which was three days’ walk away. He obviously had a good number of friends with fruit trees – all of whom had an insatiable need for ski-sticks! In the end we came to a mutual and good-natured understanding, overlooking his little foibles by regarding them rather as a ‘ski-stick tax’. Musheraf turned a little red in the face when I told him that I should hang on to one stick at least for the journey back.> Bloody hell! I think. That’s all we need! Night! At 8,400 metres! We’ve had a fall, we’re sitting on the highest balcony of the world, we’re longing for any kind of shelter, and now … this. Julie has put the battery in again, closes the case and switches on. Nothing. A wave of utter frustration overcomes me, robbing me suddenly of good sense. I tear the lamp from Julie’s hands and hurl it into the night. Even as I do so, I am bitterly shaken by my outburst. ‘Hell!’ I mumble into my beard, shocked at the consequences of my sudden temper. This must be the altitude. Julie doesn’t say a word, but it is obvious that we should have kept trying longer. Now, we’re very definitely without any light.