Fact Friday: Into the Clouds: the race to climb the world's most dangerous mountain by Tod Olson

Image: Scholastic

Into the Clouds: the race to climb the world's most dangerous mountain by Tod Olson. 270 p. Scholastic Focus/ Scholastic Inc., April 21, 2020. 9781338207361. (Review of arc courtesy of Blue Slip Media.)

Fact Friday wishes a happy book birthday next Tuesday to Into the Clouds: the race to climb the world's most dangerous mountain by Tod Olson. Olson recounts three U.S. attempts to climb Karakoram, or K2 during the 1930s and later in the 1950s. K2 is the second highest peak after Mount Everest. They are part of the Himalaya mountain chain that includes the highest and most inhospitable peaks in the world. While Everest is the highest, K2 is deemed the most dangerous by mountaineers.

It took me a little while to get the players straight and I would've been helped by a map, which is going to be in the finished book, but wasn't available in the arc. Once I got there, I was transfixed. Olson's writing is lucid and utterly gripping. I was surprised by how invested I had become and totally astonished by the tears that threatened a few times! 

Equally engrossing are the black and white photos that document the climbs. Most of them are clear and almost Ansel Adams-esque, giving the reader a glimpse into the treacherous and starkly beautiful terrain as well as the often precarious positions the climbers found themselves in - such as finding sufficient land flat enough to pitch a tent and be assured they would not fly off the mountain! 

The impeccable research is evident in the twenty-plus pages of back matter that includes a plethora of books, magazine and newspaper articles, blogs, videos, archival sources and interviews. There are also source notes for each chapter. 

As a person who couldn't summit Mt. Democrat, the most easily scaled fourteener in Colorado (it's a day hike!*), I am in a mixture of total awe and bemusement at those who climb extremely high or dangerous peaks. It has been awhile since I've read any books like this and Into the Clouds has reignited my curiosity about mountain climbing and other activity done at extremely cold temperatures. I read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer long before I joined Goodreads and that sparked a binge of Mount Everest- and then Arctic exploration-reading that confirmed my complete incapacity to climb mountains or explore the Poles. 

I might've read Into the Clouds in one intense sitting were it not for work. As it was, I almost stayed up late to finish the last thirty pages but put it off till I was awake and refreshed the following morning to truly appreciate the bittersweet conclusion. I broke my self-imposed rule to stop giving stars on GR to give it five. I really loved it. And I think kids will too. Our sixth graders read Peak by Roland Smith and they love it so much that they fight over its sequels. Into the Clouds would make a terrific fiction/ nonfiction pairing! 

Tod Olson is the author of the narrative nonfiction series, LOST, and the historical fiction series How to Get Rich. He has written for national magazines on the Columbine school shooting, homeless teens, the murder of Matthew Shepard, and many other stories of interest to children and young adults. Tod holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Vermont with his family, his mountain bike, and his electric reclining chair. To learn more, and to download free teaching resources, visit his website: todolson.com.


*As my mountain-boy son, who was my guide that day on Mt. Democrat, assured me, I was not yet acclimated to the altitude and would've made it if I had a few more days to do so. He was a counselor at the mountain-climbing camp he had attended from the age of ten; so he was completely at home, hiking easily without any trouble breathing or even breaking a sweat. He scouted paths up the scree at the top and was so encouraging to his old mama as I panted and rested and panted and rested.