Winter 8000: Climbing the World's Highest Mountains in the Coldest Season

by Bernadette McDonald

Overview

2020 Banff Mountain Book Competition Finalist in Mountain Literature

• Recounts some of the most dangerous feats in mountaineering history
• Insights into the human attraction to danger and suffering
• Award-winning author

While you wouldn’t expect climbing an 8000-meter peak in winter to be a popular activity, there have been 178 expeditions (as of 2019) to the Himalaya and Karakoram during the cruelest season to do just that. Polish alpinist, Voytek Kurtyka, termed the practice the "art of suffering." The stories here range from the French climber Elisabeth Revol’s solo winter attempt of Makalu, to American Cory Richards and his dramatic effort on Gasherbrum II with famed Italian alpinist Simone Moro and Kazakh hard man Denis Urubko. Award-winning author Bernadette McDonald traveled extensively to interview many of the climbers featured in this book--including Revol, the climbing partner of Tomek Mackiewicz, and Anna Mackiewicz, his widow, meeting them just a few months after Mackiewicz’s death on Nanga Parbat. McDonald’s many personal relationships with profiled climbers and her ability to tap into emotions and family histories lend Winter 8000 an intimacy too often lacking in mountaineering histories.

These accounts prove the point: Nature is not subservient to man.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680512939
Publisher:	Mountaineers Books, The
Publication date:	08/12/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bernadette McDonald is the author of eleven books on mountaineering and mountain culture, including Brotherhood of the Rope: the Biography of Charles Houston (Mountaineers Books, 2007) and I’ll Call You in Kathmandu: the Elizabeth Hawley Story (Mountaineers Books, 2005). McDonald has won numerous awards, including her second Boardman Tasker Prize and the Banff Award for Mountain Literature for Art of Freedom (Rocky Mountain Books, 2017). In 2011 the American Alpine Club awarded her their highest literary honour for excellence in mountain literature. She was the founding Vice President of Mountain Culture at The Banff Centre and director of the Banff Mountain Festivals for 20 years. McDonald has degrees in English Literature and Music. When not writing, she climbs, hikes, skis, paddles and grows grapes.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Art of Suffering 7

Chapter 1 Everest: First Time Lucky 12

Chapter 2 Manaslu: Zakopane Boys 31

Chapter 3 Dhaulagiri: The Looking Glass 43

Chapter 4 Cho Oyu: Two for Two 57

Chapter 5 Kangchenjunga: How Much Is Too Much? 66

Chapter 6 Annapurna: Carpe Diem 79

Chapter 7 Lhotse: Climbing in a Corset 91

Chapter 8 Shishapangma: The Italian 105

Chapter 9 Makalu: Two Against the Wind 113

Chapter 10 Gasherbrum II: Avalanche 127

Chapter 11 Gasherbrum I: Lost Fathers 145

Chapter 12 Broad Peak: Unfinished Business 167

Chapter 13 Nanga Parbat: The Magnificent Obsession 190

Chapter 14 K2: A Mountain for Thoroughbreds 218

Epilogue: Ice Warriors 233

Acknowledgments 240

Appendix A Selected List of Climbers 243

Appendix B Summary of First Winter Ascents of 8,000ers 249

Notes 250

Select Bibliography and Sources 259

Index 262

Editorial Reviews

[Winter 8000] doesn’t flinch from examining the dark sides. It probes the motivations, the past experiences that drove the climbers’ decisions, their feelings toward the mountain and their partners and finally, the oft-neglected postscript. What came after turns out to be an essential part of the story, even if we didn’t realize we were missing it.

ExplorersWeb - Angela Benavides

In Winter 8000, Bernadette McDonald demonstrates once more her essential contribution to mountaineering history. With vividness and keen insight, she evokes a world that few experience firsthand: the landscapes of black ice, thin air, and searing cold—as well as the haunting inner realms of people drawn to the isolation of the highest peaks and the darkest months.

Alpinist - Katie Ives

A harrowing tale of the history of winter ascents and what challenges are left to face in the world of 8,000-meter climbing.

Adventure Sports Podcast

With this book, Bernadette McDonald burnishes her already shining reputation as one of our great climbing historians. These accounts give us a fascinating portrayal of the few alpinists who are willing to endure winter ascents of the world's highest mountains.

Steve Swenson

Bernadette McDonald's clear-eyed portrayal of the men and women who embark on these ferocious adventures reveals their addiction to the cruel, rarefied beauty of the high Himalaya, and how intense ambition pushes them to risk destroying their lives and shattering the hearts of those who love them.

Maria Coffey

McDonald does an excellent job of leaning into the human side of these stories. It takes a unique personality to aspire to achieve these feats, and the book puts you right on the mountain with these climbers.

Climbing - Kevin Corrigan

McDonald shines a burning and intimate light into the souls of those who push themselves to the very edge of what is humanly possible. An instant mountaineering classic.

Jimmy Chin

A clearly 'must read' selection for any and all dedicated mountaineering enthusiasts, "Winter 8000: Climbing the World's Highest Mountains in the Coldest Season" is as entertainingly engaging as it is impressively informative. Exceptionally well organized and presented.

Midwest Book Review

There are no stories more terrifying, dramatic, and tearful than the abundant struggles, frequent tragedies, and rare successes in winter Himalayan climbing.

Steve House

McDonald’s many personal relationships with profiled climbers and her ability to tap into emotions and family histories lend an intimacy to Winter 8000 too often lacking in mountaineering histories.

Outdoors NW

Bernadette McDonald has done it again. She has chronicled the first winter ascents of the fourteen highest peaks on Earth by men and women who pushed the limits of mountaineering to glorious new extremes at a terrible cost. Rich in character and conflict, Winter 8000 never turns its back on the central question: Is it worth the risk?

David Roberts

Writing as masterful as the athletic prowess demanded by climbers.

Gripped - Lynn Martel