The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2

by Rick Ridgeway

Describes the efforts of a group of fifteen men and women to become the first Americans to climb the second tallest mountain in the world

Genres: Adventure, Mountaineering, Nonfiction, Travel, Climbing, Biography, Sports

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1980

Reviews

[Audra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've spent the past couple of weeks reading a lot of mountaineering books, including the incredible "High" and "Epic" collections. This book was more interesting from a sociological perspective than an historical one. It should have been titled, "The Me Generation Climbs a Mountain and Lives (Somehow) to Tell About It."

There is some detail about the actual climb and route(s) chosen, but most of the book is about interpersonal relationships and navel gazing on the part of the author/narrator as well as those who contributed to the book. If this team had been climbing during the 50's, the rest of the mountaineers would have thrown them off a cliff after a week. If they'd been climbing with Messner, he'd have thrown each of them off a cliff. Without oxygen. After the first day. The whining! The arguments! The touchy-feely "we cleared the air and now everything'll be great!" attitude.

No, really, the previous generation was wiser: keep your feelings to yourself and stifle, stifle, stifle, all the way to the top, because when you have to live with people under very stressful conditions for a long time, even small things get magnified into major issues; and this group started out with HUGE things.

Some of the attitudes displayed were also condescending. The author thinks little of the Japanese conquest of K2, and makes a snide remark early on about how he has no doubt they will find lots of Japanese trash on the mountain left over from the huge Japanese expedition. As the book wends on, oddly enough, he finds loads of Polish trash and rope left, even excavating what he terms a "garbage dump." But the only Japanese trash he finds on the mountain is a soup wrapper! I don't think, in all his navel-gazing, he realised how disrespectful and denigrating he came across, because I'm sure he'd have beaten his breast over that too.

The epilogue was very satisfying: after the temper tantrum thrown by one of the climbers, it was interesting to read about karmic retribution, if you will. But I'd pick up Ed Hillary's book to reread (again) before I'd read this book again. Edmund Hillary actually seems to enjoy climbing mountains, and is able to convey the wonder and excitement he felt climbing even "small" peaks in the Himalayas.

PS: My husband points out that the book has a magnificent collection of photographs. This is very true.

[Clara Mazzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

L’ascesa americana del 1978 è stata la terza di successo, dopo l’italiana del 1954 e quella giapponese del 1977 e il libro di Rick Ridgeway è veramente valido: non si tratta di un mero resoconto della spedizione, quanto di un ben strutturato reportage che mette in rilievo soprattutto i protagonisti dell’impresa e le difficili interazioni che ci sono state. L’abilità di Rick, non solo è uno dei quattro alpinisti che riuscì ad arrivare in vetta al termine di una spedizione data ormai praticamente per spacciata perché si era protratta per più di tre mesi di (causa il cattivo tempo) ma è anche scrittore di mestiere (oltre che il fotografo e il cameraman per film di montagna) consiste nel saper intrecciare le vicende e presentare i vari alpinisti in maniera accattivante, tale da rendere la lettura di questo libro estremamente coinvolgente – ripeto: più per l’aspetto psicologico dei suoi protagonisti che non per (l’ennesimo?) resoconto di quanti giorni al campo 1, quanto dislivello, quanti chili nello zaino. Rick sa montare le storie, come dei pezzi di un puzzle, sa creare dialoghi efficaci, sa manipolare una materia umana estremamente complessa e carica di battibecchi, di senso di inadeguatezza, di dubbi, di voglia di farcela, di grandi domande della vita inscenandola in location mozzafiato e situazioni avventurose, come bivacchi in alta quota senza l’attrezzatura adatta, fornelletti che esplodono, materiale che scivola irrimediabilmente giù negli abissi della montagna. A titolo personale, quello che mi ha appassionata particolarmente di questo libro è stato il leggere di quest’impresa (di cui ormai col tempo comincio a riconoscere alcuni alpinisti) da altri punti di vista e poter cominciare a fare il triage sui giudizi dati ad alcuni alpinisti, primo tra cui il mitico John Rosekelly (il più abile alpinista himalayiano americano, che inseguiva il mito di Messner a cominciare dal caratte) da molti bistrattato come un conservatore ottuso e che invece mi è apparso come uno in realtà sincero e in grado di valutare situazioni e persone in maniera esatta e per questo poco amato dagli americani, che si aspettano sempre feedback “smussati”.
Se siete appassionati di storia del K2 questo è un mustread.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first, the book was so confusing and repetitive that I nearly stopped reading. But after a couple chapters, the story of climbing K2 began to come alive. I wish authors of climbing books would forgo the trials of air travel and lost luggage.
Ridgeway dedicates much of the book to the personality issues and problems of the climb. Supposedly, as part of preparation for the climb, the entire team discussed how to get along under the difficult circumstances of such a climb and agreed to work together and to support those who were chosen to do the final ascent. The discussion and agreement did not work, and it appeared that most of the climbers were not committed to teamwork but to a personal agenda. I was impressed that Ridgeway was willing to document and discuss the problems. I was particularly distressed by how the one woman was presented – she seemed whiny and cried a lot; at least one member of the team was outspoken about not liking to climb with women and degraded women as climbers. This climb was in 1978 and I think that attitudes toward women climbers has changed.

Given the terrible interpersonal relationships and the difficult weather, it is amazing that the team managed to summit and that members returned alive. A similar situation on McKinley in 1967 resulted in 6 deaths.

[Thurm · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the best I've read as adventure narratives go. TIL that bill summer (climbing GOAT of index) designed the whislerlite for MSR. this book reaffirms that Seattle is indeed a mountain town

[Mazola1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Step is the story of the first American ascent of K2 in 1978 as told by Rick Ridgeway, one of the expedition members. It is at once a fascinating story of what it takes to scale one of the most dangerous mountains in the world and a realistic account of the interpersonal stresses that no doubt afflict most long mountaineering expeditions.

The expedition was composed of 14 persons, and was led by Jim Whittaker, a mountaineering legend and the first American to climb Mount Everest. It included Whittaker's wife, Dianne Roberts, and a number of experienced and strong climbers, including a husband and wife team, Terry and Cheri Bech. Many of the members were acquainted with each other, were friends or had climbed together before. At the outset, it was agreed that the goal of everyone would be to put someone, anyone, on the summit. These facts seemed to bode well for the potential for a successful ascent of the mountain.

Predictably, as the expedition progressed, most of the members decided they should be on the summit team, and became less accepting of being relegated to a supporting role. Scheming, broken friendships, anger, rumors of an affair between Cheri Bech and a recently divorced climber (with or possibly without the approval of her husband), near fist fights, bitter bickering and confrontations -- all of these happened. On top of all the interpersonal rivalries and squabbling, and no doubt exacerbating them, were days and days of bad weather which kept the expedition members pinned at close quarters in their tents. The melancholy reality of this situation was captured perfectly in a letter written by Dianne Roberts:

"All we really need is the weather. With a few clear days we would have had the summit long ago, I know it. When a bunch of independent s.o.b.'s (i.e., mountain climbers) get stuck in their tents for days on end, something weird happens to the rationality. Rather than blaming situations on fate, on the luck of the draw, or simply accepting them, people start feeling victimized. All the fine qualities that emerge when people are working hard towards a single goal somehow disappear, replaced by suspicion and vindictiveness. Sigh. I think we still have the strength and desire to climb the mountain."

Eventually, even as time and supplies were growing short, a window of good weather opened, and two teams of two made a push to the summit. Ridgeway, and John Roskelly, one of the strongest climbers, made the summit together, and descended safely. The other team, composed of perhaps the strongest and most driven climber, Lou Reichardt, and Jim Wickwire, also a strong and experienced climber, also reached the summit. Reichardt, not having proper gear or clothing for a bivouac high on the mountain, left shortly after arriving. Wickwire, wanting to take pictures, inexplicably lingered for over an hour on the summit, a decision that nearly cost him his life, and forced him to bivouac high on the mountain without a tent or sleeping bag. Wickwire somehow managed to get back down, suffering from pneumonia and frostbite, and near death.

The Last Step is a riveting story of human determination and conflict. Ridgeway says that as the expedition progressed, the mountain stripped everyone naked. Indeed, this may be the real story -- how great challenges and stresses bring out both the best and the worst in people. The message is that one does not truly know one's self until they have been tested by a great challenge. Perhaps this is why people climb mountains or strive mightily to overcome great difficulties to achieve other lofty goals. This is the true path to self knowledge. Striving against great odds in the face of great difficulities makes the last step so satisfying, even if the price paid to get there is great.

Again, letter from Dianne Roberts expresses this perfectly:

"A long climbing expedition is one of the few situations in modern life when you have the opportunity of really living on the edge, of pushing to your physical and mental limits. Most of the time, we are not required to come anywhere near those limits..., so we never really know where they are. There is value in knowing your limits...I think most people's limits are a lot farther than they believe. Conseqently, they live life holding themselves back for fear of sailing off the earth. Once you realize this -- that you have more reserves than you'd imagined -- you're free to explore and experiment, to take risks -- emotional, mental, and physical -- that you'd never dreamed of taking before. You're fee to laugh at yourself when you fail (because in most of life, failure is not life-threatening, merely a learning experience) and relish the simpest of pleasures. I don't advocate everybody packing off to the Himalayas but I think it is good to do something that involves risk -- preferably mental as well as physical -- to push yourself beyond what is comfortable...Life is less precious than the ability and freedom to live life to its fullest."

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I not read this before? This is amazing! There's a lot of conflict in this expedition, and Ridgeway doesn't shy away from describing it. Of course, it is from a biased perspective, but Ridgeway does include multiple climbers' viewpoints. The climbing itself is also incredible, and well described.

> Most of the subsequent attempts were made by Americans—in 1938, in 1939, and again in 1953. Like Everest, which was called a "British" mountain because Britons had made most of the early attempts to climb it, K2 was an "American" mountain. But unlike the British, who in 1953 became the first to climb Everest, the Americans missed their chance: in 1954, an Italian team made the first ascent of K2. … I had set out to lead a successful expedition to the second highest mountain in the world, and I wouldn’t feel satisfied until we completed what Americans had first set out to do in 1938. There now had been five American failures in a row (including a joint German–American expedition in 1960).

> For years I had been friends with the Kennedy family, and I asked Senator Ted Kennedy for help. He said he would write Prime Minister Bhutto and see if there was anything that could be done. On New Year’s Day, 1977, I received a letter from the Pakistan Embassy saying their government, as a special case, had allotted our expedition, as well as the British, permission to try K2 in 1978. The only condition was that we agree to follow the British by a few weeks to avoid logjamming on the approach march. We were on for 1978!

> The other possibility was the northeast ridge. The Poles had nearly reached the summit on this ridge in 1976, but had been turned back only seven hundred feet from the top when threatening weather and pending nightfall forced them to retreat. It was no doubt a less steep route than the west ridge, but it had the disadvantage of being very long. At one point, the ridge maintains the same altitude for nearly half a mile, and because it is knife-sharp, it would be a problem to haul equipment across to the upper camps.

> On Everest, expeditions normally hire small armies of Sherpas to help carry loads to the upper camps, allowing more climbers to reach the summit. But in the Karakoram there are no Sherpas. We had four Hunzas with some climbing ability and a little experience, but by and large, the job of hauling loads would be ours alone.

> We offered him a handful of M&M's. He took a few, set them in his lap, then picked one up and examined it. Very carefully, he peeled off the hard candy coating, again examined the chocolate core, then tasted it. He smiled and looked at us. Laughing, we taught him how to eat M&M's whole

> Every time the mail came, he first arranged his wife's letters in chronological sequence, then before opening them said: "Well, let’s see if I’m still married." John

> "I didn't know about any meeting. There was a meeting?" "Lou, we told you five times there was a meeting. You feeling O.K. these days?" Lou eventually figured out the joke, but apparently not without worrying he might be suffering from brain damage.

> The year was 1969, the scene the first American attempt to climb Dhaulagiri, and by a new and difficult route. The team was a selection of some of America's best mountaineers. Eight of the team were pushing the route up a glacier at the base of the east ridge. A fog settled, minimizing visibility, and suddenly in the distance they heard the unmistakable roar of an avalanche. Everyone took shelter; Lou found only a change in the slope—a hummock—to hide behind. The avalanche hit, and he felt his back pelted with ice debris. Then it cleared, and all was quiet. Lou looked around, and slowly he realized the extent of the tragedy. He was the only one alive; all seven of his companions had been killed. It seems safe to say most climbers would have hung up their ice axes and considered such miraculous escape as divine intervention, a celestial message to give up climbing. Lou not only continued, but his next major expedition took him back to Dhaulagiri, to take care of unfinished business. After reaching the summit, his first eight-thousand-meter peak, he went to the summit of Nanda Devi in 1976 and was now on K2 in 1978. Lou was no ordinary man with ordinary drives; he had some kind of devils running around inside, which apparently were exorcized—and then, I suspected, only temporarily—by brilliant accomplishment.

> Many of the team believed it had been a mistake for Jim not to order Chris to descend earlier, that he had not recognized, in this ignoble affair, the seeds of future disharmony. Perhaps had we all better communicated our concerns—perhaps, had Jim been more forceful in asking Chris and Cherie to descend—we could have forestalled the acrimony and animosity, the poison, that were to divide our team.

> "I just talked to Lou," Cherie said acidly. "I'm tired of hearing all this stuff about Terry being upset. Everyone whispering behind our backs. You're all bastards. Bastards, bastards, bastards."

> "John," I yelled. "You'll never believe this. There's a butterfly here sitting on the rope." "Yeah, there's more over here. They're flying in all around." I spotted two, three, four more. In no time there were a dozen, then twenty, then I counted thirty, a cloud of them flying up from some unknown place in China, rising on air currents up the mountain ridge

> We came to a section where we walked the narrow ridge crest, balancing on the edge of the knife—the exact border between China and Pakistan. The sun was setting behind K2. The low light caused a rare and dramatic phenomenon: our shadows were cast across the Godwin-Austen Glacier below, and as we moved our arms the shadows swept across miles of snow and rock. There was even more witchery, a rainbow halo around the shadow of our heads. Like Gods of Valhalla we ruled—for the few minutes the sun hovered at that acute angle—a land of ice and snow

> Before falling asleep I made a few notes, writing by headlamp, in my journal: When I'm next asked that frequent question, "Why do you climb?" the answer will be easy. All I will have to do is tell them what it was like climbing on K2 on July 30, 1978. That is if, with words, I can possibly come close to conveying a day so full of magic.

> One of the lessons one learns from hard climbing is how satisfying something simple can be. It is a valuable lesson; for the rest of your life, hot chocolate will have a special quality you will never forget. When I drink hot chocolate now, even if I am otherwise warm, I wrap my fingers tightly around the mug.

> "Incompetents. Why in the hell do I always end up with incompetents on these trips? There are so many good climbers who wanted to come on this expedition. Where are the Henneks and Schmitzes when I need them?"

> Doesn't everybody wish to leave some mark in their life? To tread across unknown territory? Cross new thresholds and frontiers? Perhaps this drive is only the result of some large ego. I'm not sure, but there has got to be more to it than that. I do know this: I have a burning desire to do this thing that has never been done. God only knows, though, I hope I can do it.

> I still thought him the most enigmatic person on the expedition—but a little better. While I was still puzzled by what inner drives could be responsible for his almost unbelievable motivation, I at least had had several weeks to observe the empirical results of those drives—such as forging on, when the rest of us were so close to turning back, to Camp V. It was as if his mind thought an idea through to its logical conclusion, then if that conclusion demanded of his body some phenomenal physical effort, the body simply obeyed orders. It was as if he lacked what, to the rest of us, was the main limiter of our efforts: feedback from the body to the mind. Lou's body just carried out the mind's orders, and from observing him there was no indication any signals got through the other direction.

> I was nearly at the hole into which Lou''s rope disappeared, with John and Chris still arguing heatedly. Just before I peeked over the lip, out popped Lou's head, like a seal surfacing, disoriented, through a hole in pack ice. His goggles were pushed down over his nose, his glasses under the goggles packed with snow. He could not see. Snow clung to his hair and beard. I stared at Lou, then down at Chris and John still yelling at each other, not even noticing that Lou had surfaced. It was like a Jerry Lewis comedy act. I started to laugh at the absurdity, which seemed to confuse Lou all the more.

> There was criticism that Jim had been premature in choosing the summit team, that he should have waited until later in the expedition. In retrospect, Jim no doubt agreed with this, since it could have helped prevent the estrangement of nearly half the team, but when he had made the selection—weeks earlier—we had been potentially only a few days away from a summit attempt. No one could have predicted the storms that had so wreaked havoc on that original schedule.

> Terry was still boiling mad. "I'll show them," he blazed. "Let's leave this mountain right now. We'll go down and cut all the ropes behind us, and burn all the tents. That will fix those sons-of-bitches." His eyes bulged madly. That finally provoked a response from Chris, who said calmly, "You can't do that, Terry. That would be murder, or at least manslaughter. People would die." "Yeah," Cherie agreed. "You've got to calm down." Terry regained composure. Diana returned to her tent and for a while there was peace. Terry was getting used to the idea of losing a day

> Lou felt, however, that if only one of us went to the summit without oxygen, it would "cheapen the ascent" for those who did use it; presumably he thought those using oxygen would end up doing all the trail kicking, but those without would get all the credit.

> If even the tiniest thing went wrong… But if we pulled it off, it would be the ultimate achievement of my life. That alone seemed worth the risk. Lying in the tent that evening, the vision of standing on the lonely summit of K2, gazing through rarefied air to an earth falling away in all directions, perched on the edge of space where the stars shine faintly in the daylight—that vision had a religious purity.

> the fiberglass poles of his two-person tent had frozen together, and unable to break them down, his only choice had been to partially collapse the tent and strap the unwieldy package, at least four feet by seven, across the top of his pack. Now he looked more like a dust-bowl farmer en route to California than an expert climber heading for the highest camp on K2.

> He had dozed, one hand steadying the pot full of water, and the billy tipped, spilling part of the water on his parka and his half-bag. He had intended to take both parka and half-bag with him to the summit, in case he had to bivouac, but now that they were wet, and in only minutes the water would change to ice, he knew he would leave the useless garments behind. That small incident of spilled water would nearly cost him his life

> I think most people's limits are a lot farther on than they believe. Consequently, they live life holding themselves back for fear of sailing off the earth. Once you realize this—that you have more reserves than you'd imagined—you’re free to explore and experiment, to take risks—emotional, mental, and physical—that you'd never dreamed of taking before. You're free to laugh at yourself when you fail (because in most of life, failure is not life-threatening, merely a learning experience) and relish the simplest of pleasures. … To hell with the mentality that would build fences around every cliff, outlaw hang-gliding, put a hard-hat on every cyclist. Life itself is less precious than the ability and freedom to live life to its fullest

[Jean Dupenloup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick Ridgeway’s book belongs to an almost extinct breed: a necessary and palpitating contribution to the canon of climbing literature.

How much effort has been expended and how many lives taken so this book could be written? Closing the loop on the United States’ obsession with K2 has been high on the American Alpine Club’s list since the days of Fritz Wiessner.

Thanks to a handful of determined men and women, the dream came true. Ridgeway and three other Americans stood on top of the second highest mountain in the world.

Their harrowing tale of courage and endurance, engagingly told by Mr. Ridgeway in exquisite detail, is an absolute page-turner.

Assuredly one of the ten most important books on the subject of Himalayan mountaineering.

[Mark Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Testament To Human Resilience

An excellent book. So many life lessons and adages of wisdom. It speaks not only to the challenges of high altitude mountaineering, but to the very fabric of human willpower its fragility and its resiliency.

[Eadrinor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rick Ridgeway’s biographical account of the first successful American assent of K2 shows how egocentric climbers can be by highlighting all the bickering that went on among the team. They were lucky to make it…

[Abra Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this as it kept me on the edge of my seat. Very well written. I generally like all true adventure stories but this was definitely one of the most well written.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all budding and current mountaineers

[Jacob Englar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal and unapologetic about the rigors and tests of alpinism. If you are a fan of history or mountaineering please give this a read

[Doug Canfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

[disclosure: I work at Mountaineers Books] Mountaineers Books has a large list of climbing adventures by some of the best climbers who have ever gripped an ice axe. And while each of their stories has something to add to the sport, not all of them are "classics" -- THIS ONE IS!

It's well written and gripping, and is said to be the first climbing narrative that reveals the emotions that swirl around the complicated undertaking that a major Himalayan expedition is. Earlier mountaineering books typically stayed focused on the more technical aspects of getting to a difficult summit. The Last Step makes the journey an intimate experience for the reader by revealing what the participants are feeling during the days, weeks, and months of drudgery, exhaustion, fear, jealousy, boredom, awe, gratitude and other moment to moment emotions that make up the 99% of an expedition that is not on the summit.

These things have always been part of an extreme undertaking, but no one had written about them in the way Rick Ridgeway does here. (You don't put nearly a dozen highly competitive, alpha climbers together in small cramped quarters, each knowing that only a few of them will be chosen for the final summit push, and think that there won't be difficult relationships to deal with, even if that hadn't been explained in earlier climbing tales.)

This is a great adventure, masterfully told. Because it gets inside people's heads and the dynamics between them, it's a good read for anyone wanting to understand what makes climbers put themselves at extreme risk. I'd put The Last Step on the same level as other mountaineering classics like Everest: The West Ridge and Minus 148. And, by the way, the climbers on this first American summit of K2 are among the best alpine climbers who have ever lived. They are amazingly smart and professionally accomplished people (women and men), as well as being among the world's best athletes.

Loved it!

[Courtney Schafer]

A brutally honest account of the 1978 American expedition to K2. Ah, mountaineering! Lots of big egos, lots of drama, lots of interpersonal conflict in which hardly anyone comes off in a good light. (It’s particularly interesting to read this one after Jennifer Jordan’s Savage Summit, which looks at the first five women to climb K2, and discusses the misogyny and difficulties they faced from fellow mountaineers. I’d be quite curious to hear expedition member Cherie Bech’s side of the story Ridgway tells.) The struggle to reach the summit makes for a gripping read, and it’s a fascinating window into a lost era of mountaineering, when siege-style rather than alpine-style climbing was the norm, and climbers had to carry loads and fix ropes without help from trained locals. (For a look at modern climbing on K2—in which the egos and drama remain, just with a different focus—try Freddie Wilkinson’s One Mountain Thousand Summits, or Zuckerman & Padoan’s Buried in the Sky.)

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting all of the inside scoop of the expedition was interesting. I have read books about earlier expeditions, and it always sounds so admirable - a lot of climbers working together to get just two on the summit. I thought that climbers used to be more selfless and have a different attitude than they do now, but I wonder if egos have always gotten in the way of teamwork on these long, high-altitude climbs. This book is an interesting contrast to the stories of the modern, commercial expeditions (even on K2!), where all paying customers expect to get a chance to get to the top. I guess there is less animosity and jealousy within the teams, but there certainly is more danger to more people. I thought Ridgeway did a good job of staying objective in his telling of the story, even though he was in the thick of the drama.

[Travis Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book on the subject of climbing. Fantastic descriptions of the challenges involved in climbing the most difficult peak on earth. In addition, there is quite a bit of interpersonal drama. When they finally make it you celebrate with them.
Re-read---still love it. IMO the best American climbing book out there.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit slow getting into but once I did the book read very well. More of a look at what motivates a person to climb mountains & about the personal interaction among groups that climb than actually about climbing K2.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book when I read it over 10 years ago. Gripping. I met a few of the players in the book over the years I bummed around REI slide shows and the like.

[April.lehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic account of the american first ascent of k2. It's one of those books where you're shocked someone actually told all the gory details of the interpersonal conflicts of large expeditions.

[Denis Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

great mountaineering read...

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really a fan of this books "tell all" style. It reads like a soap opera at some points. I think this style detracts from the story of this historic climb.

[Andrew Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite up there with Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", but scratches that itch.