Michael Kodas

In the first days of August, when 11 climbers perished on K2 and another half dozen found themselves stranded below the mountain’s summit, some mountaineers and media criticized them as “mountain tourists.”

“It’s long past time to stop calling these egomaniacs heroes and call them what they are,” wrote one poster at the New York Times website. “Selfish, egomaniacs, and stupid.” Reinhold Messner, the greatest climber of his generation, fumed about “K2 package deals” and the “pure stupidity” of the climbers involved.

While many lamented the Everest circus’s arrival on K2, others pointed out that the mountaineers involved were highly experienced high-altitude veterans.

During interviews of eight of the disaster’s survivors and a visit to Ireland to attend a memorial service for one of the victims, I learned of the blunders and heroism of the three-dozen climbers who headed for the summit of K2 on August 1st. I also learned that just a few of the trappings of Everest have made their way on to K2. But on K2, which is far steeper and more prone to storms and avalanches than Everest, it doesn’t take much to bring disaster.

You can read my story at Outside magazine’s website:

http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/200809/k2-disaster-eleven-climbers-die-1.html
Cheers,

Michael

I’m honored that Outside magazine chose to review High Crimes, even more so that the review was written by Brad Wetzler, best known as the editor at the magazine who came up with the idea to send Jon Krakauer to Mount Everest in 1996. That assignment led Krakauer to the top of Everest, from which he descended into the middle of the deadliest day in the mountain’s history. His story on the disaster was perhaps the longest feature in magazine’s history and eventually grew into the bestseller, Into Thin Air. Ten years later, Outside published an issue commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the Everest disaster. Krakauer didn’t write anything for that edition, but Wetzler, his editor, penned a wrenching recollection of learning that climbers on the Krakauer’s team had died in a storm and the writer was unaccounted for. You can read Wetzler’s description of how the deadly storm on Everest cast a pal over a party Outside staffers were throwing in the September, 2006 issue of the magazine. You can read Wetzler’s review of my book in the February, 2008 issue. - Michael

“Kodas’s writing is clear and forceful, and he creates several gripping moments of suspense. In the end, there’s no getting around his conclusion: Everest, now more than ever, is a place any sane person would avoid.” - Brad Wetzler                           Check out the full review in the February, 2008 issue of Outside magazine