K2 by John Barry is a very different book. Barry was co-leader with Alan Rouse of the British expedition to climb the northwest ridge. They made a good attempt, but after the expedition was stopped by prolonged bad weather, Barry departed for home. Rouse stayed on, eventually climbed the Abruzzi Ridge and went on to the summit, but he died at Camp IV during the big storm. The book is sometimes amusingly written and there are lovely color plates, but it takes 96 pages to get to the mountain. Much of what Barry writes is good for those who know little or nothing about how expeditions are put together, but less so for others. The second half of the book concerns the northwest ridge team. There is little about the other expeditions that were on K2 at the same time.

Robert H. Bates