Location: Pakistan, Asia
First Ascent: Josef Larch, Fritz Moravec, and Hans Willenpart (Austria), July 8, 1956
Fast Facts:
- Gasherbrum is Balti for “Beautiful Mountain;” rgasha beautiful brum mountain. It was first named K4 by T.G. Montgomerie on an 1856 survey.
- Located in the remote Karakoram Range in northwestern Pakistan.
- Gasherbrum II is not visible from any inhabited place.
- The second ascent was in 1975, 19 years after the first, by a French team.
- In 2006 a German expedition climbed GII and then skied down it in a mere 17 hours. It usually takes most climbers five days to simply climb it.
- In 2007 Italians Karl Unterkircher and Daniele Bernasconi solved one of the great unclimbed Asian walls by climbing the impressive North Face of Gasherbrum II in quick .
- The standard route up the Southwest Ridge is straight-forward, safe from avalanches, and one of the easier 8,000-meter peak routes.
- It’s often the first 8,000-meter peak to be climbed by prospective high-altitude mountaineers.
