Week 9

K2 The Savage Mountain: Week 9

Reading Response Week 9 Bryant Lymburn This weeks reading was the story of the American expedition of 1953 and their attempt to summit K2, the worlds second highest peak, and most notorious. After World War II had finished the resurgence in exploring and climbing these great unconquered peaks began to rise once again. With new…

K2 The Savage Mountain

  When assembling the team, Robert Bates writes that the climber’s character is more important than their climbing ability. They were looking for humble men; men who would not put their own personal glory above the expedition. I believe that they found the men they were looking for. Peppered throughout the book are instances in…

Well, shit happens.

After reading many works about experienced climbers, who train for climbs, bring proper equipment, travel companions, and have knowledge about the risks they are about to endure, reading “‘Shit Happens’: The Selling of Risk in Extreme Sport” by Catherine Palmer is an interesting take on extreme sports, including mountaineering, and the commodification behind them. Not…

Week 9

Shit happens, but most of the time it does not. In Catherine Palmer’s article, “Shit Happens, The Selling of Risk in Extreme Sport”, she paints an oversimplified context of extreme sports and the risk takers who endeavor on them. Palmer creates an argument that would have you believe that these sports exist in only her…

Week 9

K2 the Savage Mountain was in many respects a vast step away from what has been read previously in this class. It is the first recounting of an American Climb, and it is in many ways an introduction to what the themes in the class reading is going to turn to – pure accounts of…

K2, The Savage Mountain

What a disaster. I enjoyed the first three chapters and the appendix of the book because they were so detailed. I think this is the first book we have read that went into that much depth about the history and geography of the mountain and the planning before the expedition in one book. Though it quickly…