Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day

This is a wonderful book, well researched, carefully documented, absolutely accurate and beautifully written and edited. It is a true adventure that takes the reader into the world of climbing Nepali Sherpas and Pakistani High Altitude Porters (HAPs), a world seldom experienced and little understood by westerners. We usually only hear about the westerners on the mountains and even in death most Eastern Sherpas and HAPs are not identified by name in news reports. The book weaves a true tale of tragedy, courage, and humanity about the most skilled climbers in the world who carry the rest of us to the top of unforgiving mountains inhabited by their goddesses. It is also the story of their culture, their families, and physiologically why they are especially adapted to climbing at high altitudes. This book leads us into their world. My husband and I have a personal interest in this story and have carefully followed the books published about the 2008 tragedy on K2 as Jumik and Tshering Bhote, Nepali Sherpa friends of ours, were on that mountain. They are brothers of Pemba, our lead Sherpa on our visits to Nepal. They have cared for us, driven us, guided us, and befriended us, as Sherpas do. Jumik lost his life when a serac fell on him. Tshering survived but will be forever marked by that terrible event as will his family, also friends of ours. I wish that I could say Jumik died in a place where he wanted to be doing what he loved; but, truthfully, he was doing what he could to provide for his family. People in that part of the world mostly live in abject poverty. Money can be made in the mountains, risky as climbing is. Jumik, and the other HAPs and Sherpas, do not climb for the love of climbing. They climb for money. Jumik was doing honorable work for honorable reasons, and this book honors his memory as well as all of those Sherpas and HAPs who were on the mountain that day. It tells the story of terrible death and great heroism and why these skilled mountaineers climb. It introduces us to their humanity as well as ours. I urge you to enter this world through the eyes of Amanda and Peter. You will be glad you did.

I found this a well written and researched book on all that goes on with a big mountain climb. It shows the selfishness of those whose only goal it to get to the top and forget the humanity of it all. Those who pay to go up dismiss the people that make it possible to get there and even worse, don't think that it is worth helping them when the porters are in trouble. It exposes mountain climbing in this day and age for what it is now, self absorbed people spending a lot of money on a rediculous goal. I hope it serves as a wake up call for those who continue to climb. It is not the climbing it is the loss of caring for others that is dsturbing. There are many heroes in this book as well and nice to give them credit, many lost their lives helping others. A great concise read for those who want to know what happened on K2 that year.

I picked up this book after watching the documentary film "The Summit." The book starts off with a history and description of Sherpa culture and beliefs as well as a look into the culture of Pakistani porters. The protagonists are a few Pakistani high-altitude porters and Sherpas. I have to admit that I was put off by this, at first, because it's unusual for an adventure book to start from a non-Western point of origin. However, in retrospect I appreciate this a lot. I honestly had no idea that among there was so much diversity among the low-and-high altitude porters and would not have known this if this book started with a common, western point-of-view. After the history lesson of how western climbing ambitions transformed life in the Karakorum and Himalaya regions, the story of the tragedy finally took off. I believe the authors did a perfectly fine job recounting the events leading up to the tragedy as well as the aftermath. It answered some questions that the movie "The Summit" left hanging and it was just as exciting as "Into Thin Air." Overall, a very engaging read that I won't spoil here. I think one takeaway from this book is the spotlight put on the relationship between western climbers and the porter community. At first, I thought that the relationship was somewhat exploitative. I think this belief is widely-held; however, this book made me see that there is much more involved. No HAP or Sherpa is ever forced up a mountain. Good high-altitude porters are paid very high wages compared to the status quo to do these jobs and the decision to take jobs on dangerous peaks like K2, Nanga Parbat, etc, is not one made lightly by these men and their families. It seems that working at high-altitude for a Sherpa or HAP is much like a westerner working a high-risk job such commercial fishing, logging, etc. In the west, we don't ever think of that work environment as exploitative. These workers are paid to take the risk, know the risks, and definitely have made their own decisions.

I couldn't put the book down. Although unlike Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, Peter Zuckerman wrote the book as an outsider, not one who climbed the mountain, the book is as engrossing as Into Thin Air. I actually like this book better. Into Thin Air, jumps to other stories in the midst of telling one too much. It's quite confusing. A reviewer commented the book spent too much time in the beginning talking about the lives of sherpas? but this book is exactly that, as the title goes The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day. I do have the sentiment that in order to present a whole picture of the story of the sherpas, we do need to know about their lives, about how they start to have a job as a guide. I am fascinated by sherpas. They are strong, kind and exceptionally loyal people (the same goes to the Paskistani high altitude worker/porter). I like that the author tells the lives of sherpas and their families, before their mountain career and after - what happened to the families of the deceased and the sherpas who survived. It is disturbing to know that how climbers would ask the sherpas or the HAP to go back into the worst of conditions to look for their friends. In my mind, that's equal to asking them to go and die out there in the snow storm. I personally think that once you decided to go Everest summit, you are responsible for your own life. Yes, sherpas/HAP should help when they can but it should not put them in a situation where they are highly likely to die while saving you, no matter how much you can pay them.. There's always moral debate about leaving climbers in trouble high on the mountain. But so many people ignored turnaround time, inexperienced climbers ignored their own physical ability and put themselves in danger for summit, they and they alone are responsible for their own decisions. It is unfair and selfish to accuse others for not trying to help, especially when it's so high up in the mountain where others' own survival is also in question. Climbers do not spend tens of thousands to have to bear the consequence for irresponsible climbers. I digressed. Back to the book. Although I read some comments that the book is too short and felt cheated (I don't remember the exact comment), it still came as a shock to me when the ebook ended 60% into it......... It is the first time I encounter such situation..... Nevertheless, it doesn't affect my liking to this book. I find this a very good read.

This book offers an unique perspective on what has unfortunately become a familiar story: too many people, from different countries, with varying levels of skill and experience, attempt to climb a famous but very dangerous mountain (in this case K2) at the same time by the same upper route to the summit. In 2008, nearly 40 climbers made this choice to take advantage of a narrow window of good weather. 11 died during a 24 hour period, and many others barely escaped with their lives. The well-written narrative is hard to put down, as the climbers try to make decisions and work together in this extreme high altitude environment. What makes this book different is that the authors focus most of this book on two of the climbers, Nepalis from the Sherpa people, giving their life stories in detail. Driven by a desire to escape poverty, achieve status, and support their families, they first serve as porters for climbing expeditions, then become skilled, accomplished climbers themselves. The authors provide interesting information about the Sherpa people, and their involvement in mountaineering. The reader also learns about the complex, unstable political situation in Nepal during their Civil War, which drove many rural families to the cities (primarily Kathmandu). While reading this, I thought about the great changes Western climbers have brought to the Sherpa people, both good and bad. 94 Sherpas have died on Mt Everest alone. More and more non-Nepali climbers will seek the summits of the world's highest mountains. Many of these people will depend on Sherpas to make their dreams a reality.

Of course, any mountaineering book will be compared to Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", and nothing will come close, so just accept that at the outset. If you've not read "Into Thin Air", read that instead. On the plus side, he goes into detail about the porters and guides, and the difference between Sherpas and people from other regions. This is stuff that I didn't know, and it's very interesting. He also describes K2's geography well; again, I found that it was an area I knew little about (I assumed it was just sort of near Everest... it's mot). On the negative side, the events on the mountain are poorly written, and it's really hard to follow a timeline and the various people. Krakauer does an excellent job of this: you *know* these people. But Zuckerman sort of jumps around, and when things go wrong it's hard to associate groups and climbers and porters. Lastly, the story ends about 55% the way thru the book. When I got to about 50% and things were wrapping up, I was wondering what else he was going to write about. It turns out that the remaining 45% - nearly half the book's pages - is footnotes, bibliography, and index. In summary, it was worth reading, sorta, but there are much better books in this genre, and I'd recommend reading one of those instead.

I ordered this for myself, but my sister was with me when it arrived (very fast delivery) and asked if she could read it first. Since she is a super-fast reader, I let her take it. She read it in three days in the evening while we were trying to get her house ready for sale. She said it was extremely interesting and well documented. It told the story from numerous points of view from many of those who were personally involved in the incident. She's actually read several books on this subject and said this was the most comprehensive and interesting one yet. I can't wait to get it back from her to read myself. If I don't agree with her impressions, I will post an update.

Sherpas. Within their own set, they're Sherpa, Bhote, Pakistani, whatever. To the world, they are seen as all the same. Worker Bees. Domestiques. Household help. And somehow considered "less than" the well-funded Westerners they serve (and constantly bail out of jams). This book dispels that fantasy. Lower-case sherpa can include them all... but whether they are low-altitude porters, high-altitude porters or guides, these brave and exceptionally talented natural mountain people are truly underestimated and largely ignored in their consistent feats of tenacity, terrific mountaineering skills and heroism each climbing season. I love that this well-researched book examines, in fascinating detail, the cultures and lives of these people and follows several individuals who we come to know, While they participated in various capacities in the 2008 K2 expedition, each sherpa's story is one of great bravery, enormous skill and amazing personal sacrifice on behalf of others. This is the first K2 or Everest or Denali book I have read that illustrates the critical importance of the these often ignored, elite mountaineers who make it possible for Western climbers to "make their names." Let these sherpas no longer be nameless.. This book gives them names, and helps round out the whole story about how Himalayan mountaineering expeditions (esp. commercially or Western organized) rely upon these men for their success. And survival. This is not a book that is critical of Western climbers; rather, it focuses on those elite mountaineers you never hear about in the news on in outdoor magazines. The different point of view makes this really illuminating in better understanding this particular season on K2.