Expedition 7x8000
K2
8.611 meters
Ranking: 2
Altitude: 8.611 m.
Location: 35º 52' 52'' N, 76º 30' 48'' E Karakorum, Pakistan, China.
First ascent: An Italian expedition reached the top on 31 July 1954. The expedition was led by Ardito Desio, although the two climbers who reached the summit were Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni.
Peak conquered by Edurne Pasaban on 26 July 2004.
K2
The second giant of the Earth is the most dangerous mountain on the planet. 56 people have died attempting the ascent, and its technical difficulty makes it one of the most complicated challenges for any alpinist. It was the only 'eight-thousander' that Pasabán crowned in 2004, but it was a dramatic adventure. After 15 hours of difficult ascent, Pasabán, along with Juanito Oiarzábal, Juan Vallejo and Miguel Zabalza, dropped to camp 4 in a slow, dramatic descent. Pasabán suffered from freezing and had to be evacuated, but notched up her seventh eight-thousander, the midway point in her challenge.
K2 is a mountain in the Karakorum, a section of the Himalayan range on the frontier between Pakistan, India and China. At 8,611 metres, it is the second highest mountain in the world after Everest (8,848 m).
The Chinese authorities refer to K2 as Qogir. This name comes from the name Chogori, "a synthetic name built by the Western explorers on the 20th century between two Balti words, chhogo ('large') and ri ('mountain').” Other names for the mounting include Mount Godwin-Austen, Lamba Pahar ("High mountain" in Urdu), Dapsang, Kechu and Ketu (both derived from "K2").
K2 is on the border between Pakistan and China. The southern part of K2 is in the "Northern Territories" or Gilgit-Baltistan, to the north of the Baltoro glacier, in the area of Kashmir administered by Pakistan. The Northern part is in China.
The mountain was registered in 1856 by a European team of topographers led by the Briton Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen. Thomas G. Montgomery, a member of the team, called it "K2" as the second-highest peak in the Karakorum. The other large mountains were originally called K1, K3, K4, and K5, but they were later renamed as Masherbrum, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I, respectively.
The first serious attempt at an ascent was organised in 1902 by Oscar Eckstein and Aleister Crowley, but after several attempts no member of the expedition managed to summit, possibly due to a combination of a lack of physical training, personal conflicts and unfavourable weather conditions. Of the 68 days they spent on K2 (a record length at altitude at that time) only 8 gave fine weather.
What’s more, there were later unsuccessful attempts in 1909, 1934, 1938, 1939 and 1953. The 1909 expedition led by Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, reached an altitude of 6,666 metres, to what today is known as the Abruzzi spur, part of the current standard ascent route.
An Italian expedition finally reached the top on 31 July 1954. The expedition was led by Ardito Desio, although the two climbers who reached the summit were Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. The team included a Pakistani member, Coronel Muhammad Ata-ullah, who had taken part in the previous American expedition that failed to reach the summit and in which one of its members, Art Gilkey, died in a storm.
On 9 August 1977, 23 years after the Italian expedition, Ichiro Yoshizawa led the second successful attempt on the summit with Ashraf Amman as the first Pakistani climber. The expedition climbed via the Abruzzi Spur opened by the Italians, and used 1,500 porters to achieve its objective.
1978 was the year of the third ascent, this time by new route, the long eastern ridge (at the end of the route, they climbed across to the left over the eastern face to avoid a precipice, and the route connects with the top of the Abruzzi line). This ascent was made by an American team led by the renowned James Whittaker (the first American to climb Everest). The other members of the team were Louis Reichardt, James Wickwire, John Roskelley, and Rick Ridgeway. Wickwire withstood a night’s bivouac 150 metres from the summit, a height at which nobody had ever spent a night. The ascent was very important to the American team as it meant that they had completed the work started in 1938, 40 years before.
Another noteworthy ascent was that made by a new Japanese expedition, which reached the summit via the difficult northern ridge, on the Chinese side of the mountain, in 1982. The team of the "Japanese Mountaineering Association" led by Iso Shinkai and Masatsugo Konishi put three people, Naoe Sakashita, Hiroshi Yoshino, and Yukihiro Yanagisawa, on the summit on 14 August. However, Yangisawa died on a fall on his way down. Another four members of the party reached the summit the following day.
Today, the mountain has been climbed on all of its ridges. Although the mountain is not as high as Mount Everest it is considered more difficult to climb due to its terrible weather conditions and greater comparative height with respect to the surrounding terrain. It is said that the mountain is the most difficult climb in the world, which is the reason for its climber’s name "The Wild Mountain". Before 2004, only 246 people had managed to climb it, compared with the 2,238 who had managed to get up Everest. At least 56 people have died in the attempt. 13 mountaineers from different expeditions died in 1986, which was the worst season to date and has been called "The K2 Tragedy".
Legend says that K2 has a curse on women. The first woman to reach the summit was the Pole Wanda Rutkiewicz in 1986. The following five women to reach the summit have died (3 on the descent and the other 2 climbing other eight-thousanders). Rutkiewicz also died on Kangchenjunga in 1992. However, the curse seemed to be broken in 2004 when the Spanish Edurne Pasabán made a successful descent, though losing 2 toes through freezing, which had to be amputated. Once more in 2006, Nives Meroi from Italy and Yuka Komatsu from Japan managed to be the seventh and eighth women in climbing and descending K2, respectively.
A large part of the ascents of K2 have been made without oxygen. These are normally light expeditions, but in the 2004 season there was a great increase in the use of oxygen: 28 of the 47 ascents used oxygen in this year. Only three mountaineers in history have been capable of climbing this mythical mountain twice.
K2 is a mountain in the Karakorum, a section of the Himalayan range on the frontier between Pakistan, India and China. At 8,611 metres, it is the second highest mountain in the world after Everest (8,848 m).
The Chinese authorities refer to K2 as Qogir. This name comes from the name Chogori, "a synthetic name built by the Western explorers on the 20th century between two Balti words, chhogo ('large') and ri ('mountain').” Other names for the mounting include Mount Godwin-Austen, Lamba Pahar ("High mountain" in Urdu), Dapsang, Kechu and Ketu (both derived from "K2").
K2 is on the border between Pakistan and China. The southern part of K2 is in the "Northern Territories" or Gilgit-Baltistan, to the north of the Baltoro glacier, in the area of Kashmir administered by Pakistan. The Northern part is in China.
The mountain was registered in 1856 by a European team of topographers led by the Briton Henry Haversham Godwin-Austen. Thomas G. Montgomery, a member of the team, called it "K2" as the second-highest peak in the Karakorum. The other large mountains were originally called K1, K3, K4, and K5, but they were later renamed as Masherbrum, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I, respectively.
The first serious attempt at an ascent was organised in 1902 by Oscar Eckstein and Aleister Crowley, but after several attempts no member of the expedition managed to summit, possibly due to a combination of a lack of physical training, personal conflicts and unfavourable weather conditions. Of the 68 days they spent on K2 (a record length at altitude at that time) only 8 gave fine weather.
What’s more, there were later unsuccessful attempts in 1909, 1934, 1938, 1939 and 1953. The 1909 expedition led by Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, reached an altitude of 6,666 metres, to what today is known as the Abruzzi spur, part of the current standard ascent route.
An Italian expedition finally reached the top on 31 July 1954. The expedition was led by Ardito Desio, although the two climbers who reached the summit were Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. The team included a Pakistani member, Coronel Muhammad Ata-ullah, who had taken part in the previous American expedition that failed to reach the summit and in which one of its members, Art Gilkey, died in a storm.
On 9 August 1977, 23 years after the Italian expedition, Ichiro Yoshizawa led the second successful attempt on the summit with Ashraf Amman as the first Pakistani climber. The expedition climbed via the Abruzzi Spur opened by the Italians, and used 1,500 porters to achieve its objective.
1978 was the year of the third ascent, this time by new route, the long eastern ridge (at the end of the route, they climbed across to the left over the eastern face to avoid a precipice, and the route connects with the top of the Abruzzi line). This ascent was made by an American team led by the renowned James Whittaker (the first American to climb Everest). The other members of the team were Louis Reichardt, James Wickwire, John Roskelley, and Rick Ridgeway. Wickwire withstood a night’s bivouac 150 metres from the summit, a height at which nobody had ever spent a night. The ascent was very important to the American team as it meant that they had completed the work started in 1938, 40 years before.
Another noteworthy ascent was that made by a new Japanese expedition, which reached the summit via the difficult northern ridge, on the Chinese side of the mountain, in 1982. The team of the "Japanese Mountaineering Association" led by Iso Shinkai and Masatsugo Konishi put three people, Naoe Sakashita, Hiroshi Yoshino, and Yukihiro Yanagisawa, on the summit on 14 August. However, Yangisawa died on a fall on his way down. Another four members of the party reached the summit the following day.
Today, the mountain has been climbed on all of its ridges. Although the mountain is not as high as Mount Everest it is considered more difficult to climb due to its terrible weather conditions and greater comparative height with respect to the surrounding terrain. It is said that the mountain is the most difficult climb in the world, which is the reason for its climber’s name "The Wild Mountain". Before 2004, only 246 people had managed to climb it, compared with the 2,238 who had managed to get up Everest. At least 56 people have died in the attempt. 13 mountaineers from different expeditions died in 1986, which was the worst season to date and has been called "The K2 Tragedy".
Legend says that K2 has a curse on women. The first woman to reach the summit was the Pole Wanda Rutkiewicz in 1986. The following five women to reach the summit have died (3 on the descent and the other 2 climbing other eight-thousanders). Rutkiewicz also died on Kangchenjunga in 1992. However, the curse seemed to be broken in 2004 when the Spanish Edurne Pasabán made a successful descent, though losing 2 toes through freezing, which had to be amputated. Once more in 2006, Nives Meroi from Italy and Yuka Komatsu from Japan managed to be the seventh and eighth women in climbing and descending K2, respectively.
A large part of the ascents of K2 have been made without oxygen. These are normally light expeditions, but in the 2004 season there was a great increase in the use of oxygen: 28 of the 47 ascents used oxygen in this year. Only three mountaineers in history have been capable of climbing this mythical mountain twice.
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Hay momentos para recordar toda la vida, en la conferencia de Requena, yo fui completamente feliz, llevo dos noches durmiendo con mí bastón, el que me...
Adriana
