K2 Success!

Gripped Magazine July 30, 2014

A record number of climbers stood on K2 on July 26. Despite the near-perfect conditions, one climber has died at Camp Four.

K2 is located on the border between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.

K2 was first climbed 60 years ago on July 31, 1954 Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni.

On July 29, 2014 Explorers Web asked K2 summiteer Adrian Hayes, “Has K2 been tamed?” he replied, “The stunning successes have been down to an unprecedented fantastic weather window and snow conditions. It’s a good question. Top ask, but it’s a damn hard and technical mountain and with some wind, lower temperatures or normal snow conditions, we would never have got half the 35 who summitted Saturday [July 26] up, if at all.”

Mark Hornell compares K2 to Mount Everest on his blog titled “Is K2 the new Everest?”

The K2 season is not over yet as climbers are still heading for the summit.

Spanish climber Miguel Ángel Pérez passed away in Camp Four after he sumitted. He had climbed K2 without supplemental oxygen and seemed healthy when he went into his tent at night, but was found dead in the morning. Read more about the story here.