Triumph and Tragedy by Jim Curran, is the definitive story in English of what happened on K2 in the summer of 1986. Jim was cameraman for a British expedition, led by his good friend Alan Rouse, an experienced climber. They were stopped on the northwest ridge. During the summer he met and photographed most of the men and women from ten different countries, whose triumphs and tragedies he records. There were plenty of both. Wanda Rutkiewicz, a Pole, became the first woman to reach the summit of K2, followed an hour or two later by Liliane Barrard, a French woman, and six weeks later by Julie Tullis—all by the Abruzzi Ridge—but only Wanda came back alive. New routes were made on the south face and the south-southwest ridge; also at great cost. The other ascents (nineteen) were all by the Abruzzi Ridge, but there were nine casualties on this route alone. Not a good average! Only the Korean team used oxygen and established a line of stocked camps on the mountain. It is significant that members of this team climbed the mountain and returned safely, and that their tents and supplies helped to save the lives of other climbers. The most astonishing triumph was by a Frenchman, Benoît Chamoux, who climbed the ropes and ladders of the Abruzzi Ridge, went on to the summit, then descended to Base Camp, all solo and in 23 hours. The book has good color pictures and most interesting appendices, including an interview with Willi Bauer, and accounts by Wanda Rutkiewicz and Benoît Chamoux of their ascents.

Jim Curran gives his opinion of what happened on the big mountain, but others may not entirely agree. Diemberger and Bauer, who were at the high camp together, disagree on details. Kurt Diemberger is understandably upset with Curran’s book and has expressed his displeasure to the editor of this journal. After Diemberger’s return to Europe, he offered to go over details with Curran but was rebuffed. He states that in many cases Curran has taken Bauer’s account as the full truth and disregarded what Diemberger has to say. As an example, Bauer (and Curran) state that Diemberger and Tullis reached the summit at seven P.M. and should have turned back sooner. Diemberger put the summit hour no later than 5:30. A photograph in possession of the editor taken by Bauer at 3:15 looking down from the summit shows the pair 150 meters from the top. Diemberger knows it did not take them almost four hours to cover that distance. There are many other discrepencies in what the two survivors have to say. An interview with Bauer is given as an appendix. Might it not have been more objective if Diemberger had also been allowed to express the facts as he remembered them?

During the summer there seemed little regard for the dangers of descending from high on the mountain during a storm; trail markers, placed higher above the Abruzzi Ridge, for example, might have saved lives. Some things, however, are certain. Whether climbers were urged on by competition or by the thought that there is safety in numbers, I don’t know, but the accepted level of risk was very high. People apparently did not always look out for one another very well, and some depended on using tents and food that others had carried up. Possibly, also, physical and mental deterioration at great heights is worse than generally believed. For many years to come, Curran’s book will be sober reading for climbers.