The laststep

Pakistan's magnificent K2 is known also as "The savage mountain." At 28,250 feet it is second only to Everest in height but first in difficulty to climb, endowed with the worst weather in the Himalaya. Five times, American mountaineers had tried to climb this mountain, and failed. Five men had died in these attempts. This is the story of the year that the Americans took care of their unfinished business. In 1978, under the leadership of Everest-veteran Jim Whittaker (himself trying K2 for the second time), fourteen men and women set out with a common goal: to work together to get sombody,…