Though I'm
currently engrossed in producing my first full pop/rock album, I recently took
some time to read Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2’s Deadliest Day. The
book, published in 2012 and written by Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan, revolves
around the series of fatalities that occurred just below the summit of K2 in
August 2008.
I’ve read
scores of books over the years that recount mountaineering epics, but this one
is different. Although it does what most
readers of the genre will want it to do – it describes the accidents and their
surrounding circumstances in the best detail the second-hand authors could
muster – it also shines the spotlight on the people who have mostly labored in
the shadowy fringes of the genre: the Sherpas.
The first
few chapters of the book trace the trajectories of the Sherpas involved in the
disaster. What these chapters do is firmly
establish in the readers mind that the Sherpas are not second-class sidekicks,
but fully-fledged actors on par with their (mostly) white counterparts. And what the book as a whole does is show that,
although many of the people involved are competent mountaineers, they are
vulnerable human beings who willingly put themselves in harm’s way and suffered
the consequences.
If you are
looking for a mountaineering book that portrays glorious heroes, this is
probably not for you. However, if what
you are looking for is a very well-written, thoroughly researched and engaging
account of a contemporary mountaineering disaster, then I recommend this book.
