In 1939, an American billionaire by the name of Dudley Wolfe, travel enthusiast and nature, he departed from Maine at a time of K2, the second highest alta della terra, deciso a diventare il primo uomo a scalarne la vetta. Tanti furono i tentativi falliti; a partire dai primi del Novecento questa montagna, straordinaria e terribile insieme, cominciò ad attirare la curiosità di impavidi e coraggiosi, determinati a raggiungere una dei tetti più ambiti del mondo. Con la sua altezza di 8611 m s.l.m, si dice sia la seconda scalata con il più alto tasso di mortalità: ogni 4 apinisti che scalano, 1 muore. La Montagna Selvaggia, inospitale e burbera verso l'uomo, ha pareti troppo ripide e ghiacciate e non possiede punti ideali ad un ristoratore bivacco. Vi sono diverse vie di ascensione, tutte accumunate nella difficoltà della ripida pendenza. La spedizione di Wolfe fu una of the first to reach out and touch the 7500 meters, despite his age and inexperience, this rich millionaire with Fritz Wiessner and three Sherpas, decided to attack the summit every ounce of his strength. The book of journalist-writer Jennifer Jordan recounts the story of this expedition from the start with a fairly detailed reconstruction of events that characterizes it. a very complex history that is fascinating in strong contrast of dichotomies that are created from the front pages until the end of the book. From warm and luxurious drawing rooms of Europe at the icy streets of K2 and inviolable, the story unfolds from that discovery, 63 years later, the author will be drawn to the remains of Wolfe foot of the mountain in the middle of an expanse of debris.
... fragments of fabric, strings of leather, hemp ropes, crampons rusty, a plate and a bowl of milk, even an old stove burner Primus . Then my eyes fell on something that should not be there along with rocks and dirt ...
In the midst of the ruins that the author clearly perceived to belong to an age long is the finding of a small fragment of bone to put light on the mysterious accumulation preserved in the glacier. A mitten leather and cloth, worn, creased, crossed by the time shows clearly the letters of a name. Wolfe.
Here lies, Wolfe!
The book "The climb impossible " offers a fairly unbiased reconstruction of the expedition for years been at the center of important debates. The reader is left to chance to reflect on what are the balances that humans play in the summit. Read full of details, sometimes journalistic sometimes romanticized, feminine look that puts particular emphasis on the history of Wolfe to break the false idea, launched by the survivors of his ineptitude in front of the dizzy height.
The Italian translation of the title in my opinion does not do justice to history, it is not an impossible climb, however, because Dudley arrived at a height considerevole. A conti fatti si potrebbe parlare di una discesa impossibile o resa impossibile ed il titolo originale The Last man on the mountain - the death of an American Adventurer on K2 sembra sottolineare proprio questa condizione. L'ultimo uomo rimasto a sorvegliare la montagna, a 7500 metri, avvolto in un sacco a pelo di sherpa, troppo piccolo per avvolgerlo nel silenzio della grande montagna selvaggia.
The book "The climb impossible " offers a fairly unbiased reconstruction of the expedition for years been at the center of important debates. The reader is left to chance to reflect on what are the balances that humans play in the summit. Read full of details, sometimes journalistic sometimes romanticized, feminine look that puts particular emphasis on the history of Wolfe to break the false idea, launched by the survivors of his ineptitude in front of the dizzy height.
The Italian translation of the title in my opinion does not do justice to history, it is not an impossible climb, however, because Dudley arrived at a height considerevole. A conti fatti si potrebbe parlare di una discesa impossibile o resa impossibile ed il titolo originale The Last man on the mountain - the death of an American Adventurer on K2 sembra sottolineare proprio questa condizione. L'ultimo uomo rimasto a sorvegliare la montagna, a 7500 metri, avvolto in un sacco a pelo di sherpa, troppo piccolo per avvolgerlo nel silenzio della grande montagna selvaggia.
0 comments:
Post a Comment