The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2 by Jennifer Jordan

snowfall. He would miss an entire year of seasons. Between the travel and the time on the mountain, he wouldn’t return to Boston until next October or November, just as the first snows of winter were falling.
    He reminded his driver which pier the boat was leaving from and sat back as the car slowly pulled away from the curb, its tires crunching on the icy snow.
    As excited as he was about the expedition, he was also glad to be spending another Christmas with Alice in St. Anton. Their divorce, while heavy with her grief and his guilt, had nonetheless been as gentle as their marriage, and when she had asked him to come for her annual Christmas celebration he happily accepted. She made much of the season, particularly a tradition she had begun with the local children who would clamor beneath her windows yelling “ Danke , Auntie Alice” as she threw sweets and candies to them from above. These holiday traditions gave her what she called her “annual dose” of children and she enjoyed playing the extravagant and eccentric American aunt, if only for a week at a time.
    After Christmas with Alice, Dudley traveled to Switzerland for the New Year celebrations and to spend two months skiing and glacier walking. When he got to Davos and settled into his room at the Derby Hotel, he sat down to organize his thoughts. It was finally time to tell Clifford of his plans. As he began the long letter, he first detailed his climbing resumé over the past five years, assuring Clifford of the difficulty, danger, and rarity of some of his achievements:
    Please do not think I am blowing my own horn; you will understand when you see what I am leading up to.
    A short time ago * I received an invitation from Fritz Wiessner, leader of the American Alpine Club expedition to the Hymalia [sic] to join the expedition in an attempt to climb Karakoram (K2) 28,600 [sic] ft, the world’s second highest mountain. This invitation, after carefully looking into the expedition, I have accepted.
    After detailing the seven team members, Dudley explained that the entire cost of the expedition would be $17,500 ($262,500 today), with each of the seven contributing $2,500, * a sum Dudley thought a bargain:
    In other words, $2,500.00 covers all my expenses from March 15 until about October 1 when I am back in New York. I would say it was very cheap.
    Considering what the same amount of time at the Derby in Davos or the Ritz in Paris would have cost, he was right.
    Dudley continued:
    On this expedition there will be no professional guides, but Wiessner is as good as the best guides and will have the complete planning of the climb. As he reached one of the highest points on Nanga Parbat and has had much other experience, I feel that he will be most conservative. He impresses me as being a most careful climber. Finally, realize that the men taking part in this trip are mature, responsible, professional men and married men, some with families, who will not take foolish risks. †
    Dudley described the climbing route they would tackle up the mountain and wrote that, because it was primarily along a rock ridge, there was less danger of avalanche than on an otherwise easier slope. Finally, and with an eerie prescience, he spoke of the danger above the high camps, assuring Clifford that “if risks are taken it will be between the last camp and the top.” In closing, he told Clifford that “my house is completely in order” and that he had drawn up a new will just before leaving the States, things he pointed out not to alarm his brother but to assure him of his “good sense.”
    With that he wished Clifford a fine winter and said that he would see him on his return sometime in October. In a postscript he asked Clifford to send American, state of Maine, and Harvard flags so that he could raise all three at base camp.
    Clifford responded immediately to what he called Dudley’s “most interesting letter,” and agreed that this adventure could be a defining moment, as if