In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods [Paperback]

Galen Rowell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 1986

In 1975 a mountaineering team of 9 Americans, including writer-photographer Galen Rowell, set forth to scale K2, the world's second highest peak, in the Karakoram Himalaya. This is a first-person account of that attempt. Galen Rowell has participated in more than 1000 climbs from Yosemite to Alaska and to the Himalaya. His photographs have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography, the California Academy of Sciences, and in galleries throughout the United States. He is also a contributer to magazines such as "National Geographic".

Product Details

• Paperback: 326 pages
• Publisher: Random House, Inc. (September 12, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871567644
• ISBN-13: 978-0871567642
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #936,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Travel > Asia > Pakistan

More About the Author

Galen Rowell, internationally renowned photographer and mountaineer, is the author of such acclaimed books as My Tibet (with His Holiness the Dalai Lama) and Mountains of the Middle Kingdom. His work regularly appears in Life, National Geographic, Outside, and Sports Illustrated.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Huge Egos on a Huge Mountain, November 25, 2002

By 

Book Junkie "clubhouse9" (Salt Lake City, UT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the 1975 American K2 Expedition. The wonderful photos and the well-written text were some of the best I've encountered in mountaineering literature.

I liked how Galen Rowell interspersed his account of the expedition with earlier accounts of K2 attempts, some successful and some not. They gave an interesting insight into the history of this tough mountain and the people who have climbed it. The journal excerpts from various 1975 team members were insightful and intriguing. I am now going to start on "The Last Step" by Rick Ridgeway, about the 1978 American K2 expedition. Apparently, this team wasn't without their problems either.

I found it ironic, that after all the team discussion about the possibly negative implications of having a woman (Dianne Roberts) on the team, especially the wife of the leader, that she really figured very little in the disputes and quarrels. It was also ironic that there was still a lot of dissention and miscommunication amongst the team members on the actual expedition, even after the team expelled Alex Bertulis from the original team, due to lack of confidence in his ability to be a team player.

Read it, you won't be disappointed. I gave it a four because I found the first couple of chapters hard to get into. But once the '75 team is formed, it picks up quickly and then is quite hard to put down.

Unfortunately, Galen Rowell, the author of this book and a well-known photographer, recently was killed in a plane crash near his home in California with his wife.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dirty Laundry, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods (Hardcover)

The laundry in this expedition gets aired in this book. This seems to be the book that the movie K2 was based on. A lot of the characters and events are similar. Rowell gives a lot of historical background from other expeditions to K2. Rowell writes this novel from his perspective, but he also uses the diaries from the other expedition members to tell the story. He also gives the perspective from the porters point of view, however, it seems like he is mostly guessing what the porters feel and think and I've never like that from a ethnographic point of view. Considering the trouble the expedition had, it's a wonder that any of them wanted to return. Some of the best photographs of the region are shown. Galen is great photographer.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Titans clash on K2!, March 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods (Hardcover)

Most mountaineering books chronicle successful ascents. Rowell offers an even more fascinating study in the failure of an expedition plagued by titan egos: famous mountaineers proving themselves no gods. The photography is... breathtaking!