22 interesting facts about K2

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We share the most interesting facts about the K2, collected from years of reading, writing and dreaming about this notorious mountain

From the Baltoro glacier in the heart of the Karakorum, the K2, one of the most remarkable mountains on earth, rises. The pyramid summit, revered in the mountaineering world, is the ultimate challenge for climbers.

The world's best alpinists tried his treacherous hanging. Some have conquered the summit, but many have lost their lives.

I recently was in Pakistan for the first time to complete the K2 base bearing trek, followed by a crossing of the Gondogoro-LA Pass. The route took me past some of the most beautiful mountains in the world: Trango Towers, Masherbrum, Mitre Peak and Laila Peak, to name just a few.

on the way I read two books on the notorious mountain to add the tons of literature that I have devoured over the years. From summit rods to misleading titles, we examine the most interesting facts about K2, the crown of the caracorum.

interesting facts about K2

  1. with 8,611 m (28.251 ft) the K2 is the second highest mountain in the earth. Only Mount Everest is 8,848 m (29.029 ft) higher - around 237 m (778 ft). (Source: Britannica)

  2. K2 is one of the 14 eight thousands, the only mountains of the world over 8,000 m (26,247 ft). (Source: NASA Earth Observatory)

  3. The K2 received its name when Thomas George Montgomerie - a British officer who worked for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India - climbed a small mountain in Kashmir in 1856. He discovered two striking peaks in the Karakorum at a distance of over 200 km and called K1 and K2, with the "K" standing for Karakorum. K1 was renamed Masherbrum - his local name. However, K2 did not seem to have a local name, possibly because of its seclusion. (Source: The Telegraph)

  4. The name Mount Godwin-Austen is occasionally used in honor of Henry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer in the area. The Royal Geographical Society rejected the name, but it was used on numerous cards and can still be seen in places. (Source: Cia World Factbook)

    5. alt = “Interesting facts about the K2 Concordia”> K2 seen from the Concordia camp

    1. Another more common name is chogori, derived from two Balti words, Chhogo (large) and RI (mountain). This can only be a name that was invented by Western explorers, or possibly a confused answer to the question "What's that called?". Since very few locals would have ventured close to K2. (Source: Curran, Jim. (1989). K2: Triumph and Tagedy. London: Mariner)

    2. K2 is known as the wild mountain since George Bell used the term after an expedition in 1953. After he had almost slipped into death with a failed ascent, he described him as "a wild mountain who tries to kill you". Source: Seattle Times)

    3. Until recently, the K2 was the only eight -thousand meter who has never been climbed in winter. In January 2021, however, a team of 10 Nepalese mountaineers under the direction of Nimsdai Purja wrote with the first winter summit of the K2 history. (Source: BBC News)

    4. It is estimated that between one of four or five K2 summit strikers dies on the mountain. This is a summit-to-death rate of around 22%. At Everest, this rate is estimated at 3 %. Annapurna is the only eight -thousand meter with a higher mortality rate of around 25 %. (Source: Alan Arette)

      5. Alt = “Monument to the K2-Interesting facts about the K2 ″> Atlas & Boots A monument to climbers who died on the K2

      1. The first serious attempt to climb the K2 was undertaken by an English-Swiss expedition in 1902. They spent 68 days on the K2 and reached a maximum height of 6,525 m (21,407 feet). (Source: conefrey, Mick. (2015). The Ghosts of K2. London: OneWorld)

      2. The first ascent of the K2 took place on July 31, 1954 by the Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. However, their success was controversial because the summit strikers and other team members accused each other in the following years and decades of a number of illusions on the mountain. This betrayal included the secret laying of camps and suction of oxygen in order to first reach the summit. (Source: The Independent)

      3. It took 23 years for the K2 to be climbed for the second time. In 1977 a joint expedition of Japan and Pakistan reached the summit. The expedition included Ashraf Aman, the first Pakistaner to climb the K2. (Source: Himalayan Database)

      4. until June 2019, only 379 people had reached the summit of the K2. The first reports from this year indicate that this number may have risen to over 400, since over 30 people may have climbed the summit in the 2019 season. (Source: CNN and Alan Arnette)

      5. The summit of the K2 is located on the Chinese-Pakistani border. Pakistan is located in the south and China in the north. (Source: Google Earth)

        6. Alt = “Everest vs. K2: Peter in the base camp of the K2 ″> Atlas & Boots K2 is located on the border between Pakistan and China

        1. The K2 is usually climbed from the Pakistani side, where its base camp is located at around 5,150 m (16,896 ft). The route usually uses a number of four camps before the last rise of the Abruzzi ridge to the summit. (Source: National Geographic)

        2. The first woman who climbed the K2 was the Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz on June 23, 1986. Rutkiewicz died in 1992 in trying to climb the Kangchenjunga to the first woman to climb all 14 eight -thousanders. In October 2019 she was shown in a Google Doodle. (Source: The Independent)

        3. In 2004 the 65-year-old Spanish mountaineer Carlos Soria Fontán became the oldest person who climbed the K2. (Source: British Mountainering Council)

        4. The K2 disaster 2008 was the deadliest day in the history of K2 mountaineering. Eleven mountaineers died in a number of incidents after an ice avalanche that swept away with fixed ropes near a bottleneck. (Source: BBC)

          5. alt = “My first look at the Broad Peak on the K2 Base Camp Trek”> Atlas & Boots The Broad Peak is located near the K2

          1. The most fatal climbing season on the K2 was in 1986. A total of 13 climbers died in two weeks in separate incidents. (Source: New York Times)

          2. One of the most interesting facts about the K2 is that it is flanked by five of the 17 highest mountains in the world. (Source: Viesturs, ed. (2009) K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain. New York: Broadway)

          3. K2 is also a member of the seven second summit; The second highest mountains on every continent. It is generally recognized that it would be a more difficult challenge to climb the second highest summit of every continent instead of the highest. (Source: Krakauer, Jon. (1997) Into Thin Air. New York: Villard)

          4. The last 611 m long section of the mountain is known as the "death zone". Above 8,000 m, the air is so thin that it is not sufficient without additional oxygen to maintain human life for a long time. (Source: BBC)

          5. The legendary mountaineer Reinhold Messner described the K2 as "the mountain of the mountains" after he had made the fourth climbing of the summit in 1979. "He is the most beautiful of all high peaks," he continued. "An artist made this mountain." (Source: Outside Magazine)

            6. Mission statement: Atlas & Boots 
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