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I love reading about the daring expeditions to reach the top of K2. The history is fascinating. I have climbed quite a few mountains, but I don't have any desire to climb above 8000m. There is some amount of suffering while climbing mountains, but at those extreme heights the risk to reward ratio does not measure up for me. There is just too much luck involved in some of these long expeditions. Weather is nearly impossible to predict reliably enough to make some of these ascents practical for me. I am happy to read of the adventures of others.

Viesturs does not feel good about his summit of K2. He feels like he got lucky and that he went to the summit against his better judgement, he thought he should have turned back. It is really interesting that he thought he and Scott Fischer were so compatible. They are both experienced and very strong climbers, but their risk tolerances where not aligned and they never climbed together again. It is also telling that of the few people who had summitted K2 by the time of this book, very few of them are still alive. Many died in other mountaineering accidents.