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The Untold Story of K2's First Victim - 9/27/2010

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In a story where "The Great Gatsby" meets "Into Thin Air," Dudley Wolfe of Boston and New York went to K2 to find his own strength, only to encounter his teammates' lethal weaknesses in a place called the Death Zone.

Born into vast wealth yet uneasy with a life of leisure, Dudley Wolfe set out in 1939 to become the first man to climb K2. Although close to middle age and inexperienced at high altitude, Wolfe, with the team leader, made it higher than any other members of the expedition, but he couldn't get back down. Suffering from altitude sickness and severe dehydration, he was abandoned at nearly 25,000 feet; it would be another sixty-three years before our speaker, Jennifer Jordan, discovered his remains and began her painstaking research for her new book.

Bringing this ill-fated 1939 expedition to life, Jennifer Jordan will provide a multi-media presentation, gathering never-before-seen images of the men and their deadly mission, as well as 16mm film footage shot by Dudley Wolfe himself of their 350-mile, month-long trek into the mountain. Jennifer will also recount Wolfe's colorful life, from his prep school days at Andover to his ambulance driving on the front lines of World War I and from his transatlantic yacht racing to his ski traverse of Mont Blanc, and how it all culminated in his signing onto Fritz Wiessner's controversial and troubled expedition, asking: what drives man's passion for these unspeakably deadly mountains?

Jennifer Jordan is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and screenwriter, with over twenty-five years experience as a journalist, broadcast producer, radio and television news anchor, voice-over/narration talent, and motivational speaker. She is the author of "Savage Summit: The Life and Death of the First Women of K2," (William Morrow, 2005), which won the 2005 National Outdoor Book Award for Best Mountain Literature and was selected as an Editors’ Choice by the New York Times Book Review. She also created, wrote, and co-produced "Women of K2" for the National Geographic Channel, which was an official entry in scores of major film festivals, winning five.

She also has produced and written several documentaries, among them "Kick Like a Girl" which won prizes at several international film festivals and was bought and aired by HBO. In addition, her commentaries can be heard on National Public Radio.

Jordan spent most of the 1990s at WGBH-FM in Boston where she anchored National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. She also worked with the acclaimed WGBH Channel 2, public television’s most prolific production house, as an on-air talent, segment producer and host, researcher and writer. Before Jordan joined WGBH she created, produced, hosted and marketed her own talk show that she syndicated nationally via NPR’s satellite network.

Her second book, "The Last Man on The Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2," tells the untold story of Dudley Wolfe, the first man to die on K2 in 1939. It will be released by WW Norton in 2010.

Member Ticket price:

No Charge

Guest Ticket Price:

$20

Student Ticket Price:

$5 w/ ID

Reservation Notes:

Payment must accompany reservation. Tickets are secured only when a credit card is provided at the time the reservation is made. Reservations made without a credit card are not secured and tickets will be forfeited by 6:50pm the evening of the lecture.

Reservations are suggested on a first-come, first-served basis. Please call 212-628-8383, Fax 212-288-4449, or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)