K2 Lies and Treachery

The Italian ascent of K2 in 1954 was much admired by the mountaineering world
as it was then, and still is, considered to be the hardest of the worlds
fourteen 8000m peaks – in Italy there was pandemonium as there was a sense of
renewed pride after the crushing defeat in World War 2.

Behind the façade of national celebration, all was not as it seemed; the team was later embroiled
in accusations, counter-accusations and even court cases revolving around the
final climb to the summit involving Bonatti, Compagnoni and Lacedelli – this
book is the story of that controversy and of Bonatti’s battle to change
forever the official record of the first ascent of K2.