Mt. Everest, on the border of Nepal and China, is the tallest and most well-known mountain in the world. It has been climbed by over 5,700 people and, while it is dangerous, by far the deadliest mountain on earth to climb is K2.
I’m Mark Martin with "Martin’s Must Reads" and Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan in their book Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2’s Deadliest Day recount the events of August 1-3, 2008 on the slopes of “the savage mountain.”
Most books on climbing the world’s highest mountains focus on the clients, the tourists from around the world who pay huge sums of money to climb them and then write, blog and post about their success. Those successes would not be possible without the help of the native Sherpas, men paid to do the hard, unglamorous, dirty work to insure the client’s success. Buried in the Sky is unique in that it tells the story from the point of view of the Sherpas.
What makes Buried in the Sky an engaging read is that the authors give you the backstory on the Sherpas: their culture, their families, and their need and drive to climb the world’s deadliest mountains. As the story progresses to the climb of K2 itself you see the combination of mistakes and, as the Sherpas would say, the wrath of the goddess of the mountain, that lead to a disaster that killed 11 climbers as well as heroics by the Sherpas that helped save some.
If you are looking to read an adventure book that opens a window to the lives of the otherwise anonymous Sherpas then Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan’s book Buried in the Sky is for you.
