ITALIAN ACHIEVEMENT
ASCENT OF K2, by Ardito Desio;. Elek Books Ltd., N.Z. price 21/-. T 28,250 feet, K2 is the second highest peak in the world. It shares with Everest and Kanchenjunga full honours for savage mountain beauty, remoteness and difficulty. It has also cost lives. In the main, the essential pioneer work had been accomplished by magnificent parties from Italy and America. The first ascent of K2 by Professor Desio’s team was applauded by mountaineers, whatever their nationality. His persistence had triumphed over discouragements in Italy, such as the fall of a Government which had promised help. Other setbacks flourished: heavy snowfalls, mass desertions by porters, the death from pneumonia of one of the best climbers, gales, and storms on the steep Abruzzi ridge. Another difficulty was that the complexity of the expedition involved a full-scale scientific group as well as men best described as the-summit-for-the-sake-of-Italy types. Professor Desio was a remarkable organiser to gain success in both fields, at a monetary cost that has made other Himalayan parties goggle. Unfortunately, Professor Desio’s book is not as*good as his expedition. He has failed in an attempt at a cross between "a popular story ... a serious documentary." He veers between overtones of patriotism and an enigmatic undertone when most personal accounts are crowded out of a summary. And greater ettention to personal details would have ‘infused some vigour into a moutitain
narrative so concise that it is dull. In a book of some 240 pages, only a fifth of that number describe the mountain story. The rest of the pages pay deserved tribute to earlier parties on the mountain, and other sidelines. As a factual outline, the book is good value for reference, and the human story could well be written by men who carried the camps high to success. Mountaineers will be interested in technical advances, such as the use of aerial ropeways and windlasses to transport the loads up dangerous cliffs.
John
Pascoe
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 871, 13 April 1956, Page 14
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325ITALIAN ACHIEVEMENT New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 871, 13 April 1956, Page 14
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