---
product_id: 23383626
title: "No Way Down: Life and Death on K2"
brand: "graham bowley"
price: "C$2295"
currency: NIO
in_stock: false
reviews_count: 23
category: "Books"
url: https://www.desertcart.ni/products/23383626-no-way-down-life-and-death-on-k2
store_origin: NI
region: Nicaragua
---

# No Way Down: Life and Death on K2

**Brand:** graham bowley
**Price:** C$2295
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

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- **What is this?** No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by graham bowley
- **How much does it cost?** C$2295 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ni](https://www.desertcart.ni/products/23383626-no-way-down-life-and-death-on-k2)

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## Description

Review
          
          
            
            
              
                
                  &#x201C;Bowley relies on a copious study of the events and interviews with survivors and families to artfully and assiduously piece together an account of a fractious day in brutal real time. Fatality by fatality.&#x201D; (Holly Morris, New York Times Book Review)&#x201C;Unputdownable.... A portrait of extreme courage, folly and loss, leavened by a small dose of survival, as complete a version of the calamitous story as will probably ever emerge. . . . [A] step-by-faltering-step recreation of the thin-air fight to survive, bristling with cinematic immediacy.&#x201D; (Justin Marozzi, Financial Times)&#x201C;Harrowing.&#x201D; (Jan Gardner, Boston Globe)&#x201C;An astonishingly dramatic and sad tale of disaster on K2. Bowley expertly puts together the complex story of what happened as eleven people died high on the summit slopes of K2 in August 2008.&#x201D; (Joe Simpson, author of Touching the Void)&#x201C;Brisk and engrossing. . . . Mr. Bowley reveals a deep sympathy for his characters and their quest. . . . Entertaining.&#x201D; (Michael J. Ybarra, Wall Street Journal)&#x201C;[A] fascinating tour de force&#x2026;. Bowley wove his tale together after hundreds of interviews with dozens of people, and the result is a triumph of storytelling.&#x201D; (Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press)&#x201C;A compelling narrative from interviews with most of the survivors. . . . The most complete report of the tragedy to date.&#x201D; (Grayson Schaffer, Outside magazine)&#x201C;Harrowing. . . . Bowley is an intrepid journalist and gifted storyteller. . . . Thrilling and wrenching. (Kirkus Reviews)&#x201C;Bowley takes readers right onto the mountain&#x2026;. As avalanches shear away ropes, darkness falls and rescue attempts succeed and fail, the book becomes impossible to put down&#x2026;.. The vivid story will captivate readers. No Way Down doesn&#x2019;t just tell a harrowing adventure story-it will also make you think.&#x201D; (BookPage)&#x201C;Both a gripping read and a clear-eyed investigation, No Way Down provides a compelling education in the game of climbing on the world&#x2019;s highest mountains to readers who have never tied into a rope, and is an essential addition to any mountaineer&#x2019;s bookshelf.&#x201D; (Michael Kodas, author of High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed)
                    
                  
                
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            From the Back Cover
          
          
            
            
              
                
                  On August 1, 2008, no fewer than eight international teams of mountain climbers&#x2014;some experienced, others less prepared&#x2014;ascended K2, the world&apos;s second-highest mountain, with the last group reaching the summit at 8 p.m. Then disaster struck. A huge ice chunk came loose above a deadly three-hundred-foot avalanche-prone gully, destroying the fixed guide ropes. More than a dozen climbers&#x2014;many without oxygen and some with no headlamps&#x2014;faced the nearly impossible task of descending in the blackness with no guideline and no protection. Over the course of the chaotic night, some would miraculously make it back. Others would not.In this riveting work of narrative nonfiction, journalist Graham Bowley re-creates one of the most dramatic tales of death and survival in mountaineering history.
                    
                  
                
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                      About the Author
                    
                    
                      
                      
                        
                          
                            Graham Bowley is a reporter for the New York Times. He grew up in England and lives in New York with his wife and three children.
                              
                            
                          
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## Images

![No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JOl89ucBL.jpg)
![No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - Image 2](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/517VSuzW5%2BL.jpg)
![No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - Image 3](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31GNyZyhCXL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Great book - great story, great writing
  

*by R***E on Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2017*

I bought this when it was on sale because the author wrote for the NY Times and the reviews were positive. I am glad that I did as It ended up being one of the better books I have read this year. The author did an incredible amount of research including extensive interviews with the surviving principal characters. The author is a great story teller and does a great job of providing an historical backdrop of previous expeditions that help you to understand the challenges faced by the climbers. He makes no judgements and assigns no fault. He presents the facts and allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. I was amazed that the climbers were so driven to summit the mountain that they gave little thought to the time and the conditions they would face going down the mountain. Circumstances beyond their control made matters even worse. He does a great job of helping a non-climber such as myself to understand what compels these people to risk their lives to summit these incredible mountains. I also learned an appreciation of the beauty and unforgivable nature of K2. I am not a climber or an  outdoorsman but found this to be a book so interesting that I took my Kindle to work and read it whenever I had a few minutes. It is part adventure, part tragedy and part a study of human behavior. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a great human story.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    I had read the "Summit" by Pat Falvey and it much better explains the camaraderie and character of the climbers
  

*by S***3 on Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2017*

This author compiled notes and slapped it together in  a haphazard way.  If an event happened on the mountain, we do not know to need about his past life.  Introduce his character before that.  I had read the "Summit" by Pat Falvey and it much better explains the camaraderie and character of the climbers.  This book jumps all over the place and if I had not read the other book, I'd have been lost. Worse, the author spends about 20% of the book on himself in a lengthy epilogue interviewing the survivors.  What this man needs to learn is we don't CARE about him, we care what happened on that mountain. His writing style is good and readable.  But his ability to compile the events i chronological order  is terrible.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Good, Yet Western Approach
  

*by S***E on Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2012*

No Way Down by Graham Bowley is a good book concerning the 2008 K2 Tragedy. I have read every book and account concerning this incident and feel this one deserves 4 out of 5 stars. After a brief chapter of trekking to Base Camp, we jump right into Camp IV and summit day. I'm not sure the reader is able to comprehend all of the emotions that assisted in creating the `summit fever' without understanding just how long most of the teams had been waiting for the summit attempt. In addition to the 2008 summit, there are a good number of previous and more historical ascents documented as well, especially concerning Art Gilkey that lead to the Gilkey Memorial. I do commend Bowley on his research into avalanches and seracs and his explanation of these items right when they need to be mentioned. There is a great epilogue that details the author's adventures travelling to interview as many of the survivors and family of the deceased. Bowley's own opinion into the conflicting, if not controversial accounts concerning the final moments of Gerard McDonnell are well documented and almost convince me. The only thing that is missing is (all of) the Sherpa's stories. Reading One Mountain Thousand Summits or Buried in the Sky tells more of their story and doesn't have the Western approach only. I would recommend this book in addition to the previous mentioned to really grasp this tragedy.

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*Product available on Desertcart Nicaragua*
*Store origin: NI*
*Last updated: 2026-02-22*