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One Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold…
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One Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold Story Tragedy and True Heroism on K2 (original 2010; edition 2010)

by Freddie Wilkinson

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1007269,727 (3.24)3
"In the early morning hours of August 1, 2008, more than two dozen men readied in the starry darkness for their final ascent to the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain. In little more than 24 hours, eleven climbers would be dead." -- back cover.
Member:br13nale
Title:One Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold Story Tragedy and True Heroism on K2
Authors:Freddie Wilkinson
Info:NAL Hardcover (2010), Edition: 1, Hardcover, 352 pages
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One Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold Story Tragedy and True Heroism on K2 by Freddie Wilkinson (2010)

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Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
Oooh, this was good. It's not Into Thin Air, of course not, it could never be Into Thin Air, but do you know what it is? It's The Expedition by Bea Uusma. It's about obsession and love and looking for answers in a place where you know that you will probably never find them, not the way you want to them at least. True, Uusma's obsession spanned longer than the two years it took Wilkinson to write this book, but it's still the best comparison I can make.

The book does not follow any clear order in the narrative, it jumps back and forth in time between events and perspectives ... but for some reason it's never confusing. Yes, if you wanna go back and look something up it's impossible to remember if you read it 10 or 100 pages ago, but by going all over the place, all over the world more or less, you slowly but surely get a picture of what might have happened on K2 in 2008.

I say "might have happened" because even though the book sticks with one particular narrative, we will never know for sure. The only thing we do know is that most of the deaths seems to have been so pointless, so random, so sudden, and I guess it's hard to accept that sometimes there is no greater meaning behind them. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether Gerard saved the Koreans and Jumik Bhote or not, because none of them made it down alive, but then again ... maybe it is better to imagine that they died feeling positive, happy, that they were gonna survive, rather than the hanging upside-down, despairing. But maybe Gerard and Big Pasang were good people even if they didn't manage to save a single person before they died.

We will never know, but obviously the 2008 K2 disaster will continue to fascinate people. I am one of those people. ( )
  upontheforemostship | Feb 22, 2023 |
An insider's account of one of the deadliest and most controversial tragedies in mountaineering history-the 2008 K2 disaster.

When eleven men perished on the slopes of K2 in August 2008, it was one of the deadliest single events in Himalayan climbing and made headlines around the world. Yet non of the surviving western climbers could explain precisely what happened. Their memories were self-admittedly fogged by exhaustion, hypoxia, and hallucinations. The truth of what happened lies with four Sherpa guides who were largely ignored by the mainstream media in the aftermath of the tragedy, who lost two of their own during the incident, and whose heroic efforts saved the lives of at least four climbers.

Based on his numerous trips to Nepal and in-depth interviews he conducted with these unacknowledged heroes, the other survivors, and the families of the lost climbers, alpinist and veteran climbing writer Freddie Wilkinson presents the true story of what actually occurred on the "savage" mountain. This work combines a criticism of the mainstream press's less-than-complete coverage of the tragedy and an insightful portrait of the lives of 21st-century Sherpas into an intelligent, white-knuckled adventure narrative.



Rather disjointed writing style that took some getting use to but enjoyed it.

The author focuses on Pemba Gyalje, Tsering (Chhiring) Bhote, and Big Pasang Bhote who where involved in the 2008 summit attempt and looks at the circumstances of Gerard MacDonnell's disappearance on the mountian - for me the most enduring mysteries of the K2 tragedy.

If he had survived his story would have been one of the greatest tales of heroism ever told ( )
  jan.fleming | Jan 31, 2014 |
In One Mountain A Thousand Summits, by Freddie Wilkinson, a bunch of very brave and courageous men and women go to fight the tallest and most extreme mountain ever, K2. This mountain is so high in elevation, and low in temperature, they all bundle up, because even the mere touch of the frigid air could give them frostbite, eventually leading to death.
They walk for a couple days and then something goes horribly wrong, making every man fend for himself. Its a fight against K2 and so far the climbers are losing. The mountain sends strong attacks on them, avalanches and windstorms, and then the toughest battle yet is when you're nowhere near a base camp and they have to survive the painfully cold and brutal night. Will they survive, will they make it to the top?
One Mountain a Thousand Summit was a very interesting book, in this book, the author told you a lot about the mountain, technology and clothes the climbers would use. Also he would sometimes explain the lives of the climber and what the climber was going through. Sometimes the author, Freddie Wilkinson, would even do a chapter or a few paragraphs on the perspective of the climbers family.
Although One Mountain a Thousand Summits was a very educating book, I did not like it at all. I could not keep up with it, because of how many foreign names were in it and how it jumped around from perspective to perspective. Also in One Mountain a Thousand Summits, I could not piece together what was happening in the story. I did not know what was happening because it would be one chapter of facts on K2 and the experience one would have. Then the next chapter would be about the life of the Korean hikers, or Irish hikers or a different hiker. So you would read about one persons adventure, then read another persons adventure that was happening at the same time, and try to piece together the similar events.
Another thing I didn't like about this book was that the author put in more educational aspects of K2 then the adventures. When I picked up this book, I expected more adventures and how it was to be a hiker on K2. But what I got instead was a handful of watered down adventures and mostly facts about the clothes, phones and climate/conditions of K2. All in all, this book did not meet my expectations. ( )
  br13almu | Dec 20, 2012 |
One Mountain Thousand Summits by Freddie Wilkinson was truly an amazing book. It includes a true story of the tragedies and untold heroism that these mountaineers deal with daily on mount K2. This book left me biting my nails to the stub and always left me breathless after finding out how these people stood up, looked death strait in the eye and came out sometimes without a scratch, but most of the time severely injured or dead.
It started off with 24 mountaineers ready to own mount K2 and just come out stronger. Let me tell you, three came out alive, one including the author. As you can see, thee other 21 came upon some of the many dangers of climbing this legendary mountain.
Although this book had a fantastic climax and ending. I’m afraid that it did have a very slow starts. At first, i did not want to read this book during the friday reading times we had every week. Thankfully, I powered through the beginning to read the books fantastic climax and ending.

Freddie Wilkinson did an amazing job writing this book. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read or just a good thrill, and if you are reading this book or you are thinking about reading it, just keep in mind that this book is a true story.
  br13nale | Dec 8, 2012 |
I've read lots of mountaineering books and this one, unfortunately, just failed to capture my interest. "One Mountain, Thousand Summits" isn't so much about the tragic expedition on K2, one of the deadliest mountains in the Himalayas, but about who knew details first about the 11 people who died. For the most part, I just kept thinking "who cares?" who told what story to the media.

Freddie Wilkinson objects the way expedition tragedies are covered by the media but also the way mountaineering "firsts" are covered. He objects to the media publishing sketchy information, but also that the media's efforts to get accurate information crashed a website. Basically, the book felt like an indictment of the media's interest in mountaineering accidents, which seemed strange since Wilkinson himself has written and is selling a book that is all about a mountaineering tragedy.

I didn't find this book to be well written or particularly interesting. There are so many great mountaineering books out there -- this isn't one of them sadly. ( )
  amerynth | May 4, 2012 |
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"In the early morning hours of August 1, 2008, more than two dozen men readied in the starry darkness for their final ascent to the summit of K2, the world's second-highest mountain. In little more than 24 hours, eleven climbers would be dead." -- back cover.

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