Rockford native mountain climber comments on weekend’s deadly avalanche

2 comments August 5th, 2008

Renowned mountain climber Ed Viesturs, a Rockford native who now lives in the Seattle area, comments in this story about the ice avalanche last weekend that killed nine climbers atop K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain in Pakistan. (goworldtravel.com photo)

Viesturs, who has conquered K2 and recently concluded a successful quest to scale all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks, said that K2 is considered “the holy grail of mountains.”

A mountain-climbing drama that partly featured Viesturs, “Into Thin Air,” was the featured book in the 2003 One Book, One Rockford program that encourages everyone to read the same book at the same time and talk about it.

This year’s One Book selection is “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace … One School at a Time” co-authored by Greg Mortenson. The book chronicles his failed attempt to scale K2, his stumbling upon a village of people who helped him and his spearheading the building of schools in remote Pakistan and Afghanistan mostly to educate girls.

Mortenson will be in Rockford in September. Mountain-climbers sure are driven, and it’s that kind of mind-set that propelled Mortenson’s school-building efforts. Can’t wait to hear him speak in person.