The Ghosts of K2: The Epic Saga of the First Ascent

Although not a climber myself (except for having done a modest amount of what's called "scrambling" in the Sierra Nevada a long time ago), I've had a longstanding interest in Mt. Everest. But I'd never read anything on K2 prior to this book. Conefrey does a fine job of bringing the history of attempts to climb K2 to life. He also undertakes a reexamination of the claim, almost universally accepted by now, that Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni, the first climbers to reach the summit, intentionally tried to keep fellow climber Walter Bonatti from reaching the summit and lied about their use of oxygen. It seems that revisionist history may need to be revised yet again. In any event, this is a fine work for anyone interested in show more mountaineering history. show less