Seppelliti nel cielo

Year: 2013 Pages: 272 When Edmund Hillary conquered Mount Everest, Tenzing Norgay was at his side and that was the first time the name of a Sherpa appeared in the news. In reality, all of Himalayan mountaineering is marked by the presence of these silent figures, whose contribution was as decisive as it was unacknowledged by history. In the summer of 2008 numerous Sherpa porters were waiting at K2 Base Camp, in the pay of the numerous international expeditions determined to attempt the assault on the summit. After weeks of waiting, finally on August 10th the weather conditions seemed optimal for conquering the wild mountain: but the anxiety of accomplishing the feat got the better of prudence, and in the space of twenty-seven hours, the thirty-eight mountaineers engaged in the climb Eleven died in what would become K2's greatest tragedy. Surrounded by death, in desperate conditions, two Sherpas managed to survive. Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan trace the intertwined lives of Chhiring Dorje Sherpa and Pasang Lama, following them from their villages on the Himalayan slopes to the slums of Kathmandu and across the glaciers of Pakistan to K2 Base Camp. When the horror unfolds in the Death Zone, Chhiring finds Pasang stuck on an ice wall, without an ice axe, waiting for death. He rescues him and brings him back to the camp, and the story of this rescue, which took place in the most extreme conditions, has rightfully entered the legend of mountaineering.