K2
is a challenge to summit, but as recent films have documented, getting back
down is even more treacherous. However, merely reaching the mountain’s base
requires a determined effort from climbers, before they ever set their first
piton. Viewers will get a full perspective on the 8,000 meter mountaineering
experience in Dave Ohlson’s K2: Siren of
the Himalayas (trailer
here), which
opens this Friday in New York.
In
1909, the Duke of Abruzzi led an expedition to K2. Although they did not
ultimately summit the second highest peak on Earth, their experiences were
invaluable for future attempts, much as the Italian nobleman hoped. One hundred
years later, alpinist Fabrizio Zangrilli (of Boulder, Colorado) led his
intrepid party to K2. Of course, they were fully aware of the Duke’s historic
campaign, but the tragic events of the previous year preoccupied their thoughts
considerably more.
In
a sense, K2 is an independent sequel
to Nick Ryan’s The Summit, which
reconstructed the murky events that led to the deaths of eleven climbers in
August, 2008. Zangrilli knew some of them. It is a small world in his line of
work. Yet, he attacked K2 just the same, along with Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, the
future National Geographic Explorer of the Year, who was then still working on
her goal to become the first woman to scale all fourteen 8,000 meters without
artificial oxygen.
Ohlson
captured some dramatic visuals, but arguably the most mind-blowing shots in the
film are not of K2, but the ridiculously unsafe mountain highways Zangrilli’s
group had to traverse just to reach Concordia, the gateway to K2 and three
other 8,000 meters. Getting there is a trek in itself, with Pakistan’s regional
instabilities adding additional danger.
Periodically,
Ohlson intersperses footage of Zangrilli, Kaltenbrunner, and company with
Vittorio Sella’s incredible photographs of the Abruzzi expedition. It gives
viewers a good sense of the mountaineering tradition. More importantly, Ohlson
uses Zangrilli’s example to redefine a successful 8,000 meter attempt. Clearly,
Zangrilli is a great sportsman, but he had yet to summit K2. However, he had
foregone perfect opportunities to carry down an ailing colleague. Instead, a
successful K2 team leader brings his entire party safely off the mountain. After
all, several climbers summitted during the fateful 2008 incident.
Evidently,
we are witnessing a golden age of mountaineering documentaries. K2 follows hard on the heels of The Summit and Leanne Pooley’s Beyond the Edge, all of which are quite
good, but in different ways. K2’s
strengths are the wider contexts it provides, as well as some insight into the
bonding that happens between fellow alpinists. Mountain climbing does not look
like much fun in The Summit, but we
come to understand why Zangrilli and his colleagues do it after watching Ohlson’s
footage and interview segments. Recommended with equal enthusiasm for sporting
audiences, K2 Siren of the Himalayas opens
this Friday (8/22) in New York at the Quad Cinema.