Elevation: 28,253 feet (8,612 meters)
Location: Pakistan/China, Asia
First Ascent: Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli (Italy), July 31, 1954
Fast Facts:
- The name K2 was assigned in 1852 by British surveyor T.G. Montgomerie with “K” designating the Karakoram Range and “2” since it was the second peak listed.
- K2 is nicknamed the “Savage Mountain” for its severe weather. It is typically climbed in June, July, or August.
- Brits Aleister Crowley and Oscar Eckenstein made the first attempt at climbing K2 in 1902, spending 68 days on the mountain. Only eight of the days were clear.
- Fritz Wiessner, a great German climber transplanted to the US, led a 1939 American expedition that set a new world altitude record by reach 27,500 feet o the Abruzzi Spur.
- During an American expedition in 1953, Pete Schoening held five falling climbers by arresting their fall with the rope and his ice axe plunged behind a boulder. The axe is now on display at the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden, Colorado.
- The peak’s 2nd ascent was in 1977, 23 years after the first, by a Japanese team.
- K2 is one of the most difficult 8,000ers with hard technical climbing, severe weather conditions, and high avalanche danger.
- In 1986 thirteen climbers died in a storm.
- Five women have summitted K2, but three died on the descent and the other two on other 8,000-meter peaks.
K2, having had its share of epic and tragic ascents, is also a mountain of literature. Some of the best writing about the trials and tribulations of mountaineering have come from gripping adventures on the Savage Mountain. Here are some of the books that I recommend if you want to read more about K2.
K2: Triumph and Tragedy by Jim Curran. The summer of 1986, nine expeditions attempt K2. Twenty-seven climbers reach the summit, but thirteen die on the savage mountain. Jim Curran, who was there, writes a gripping account of that bittersweet summer of success and death. K2; The 1939 Tragedy by Andrew J. Kaufman and William L. Putnam. An account of the controversial 1939 American expedition that put two climbers within 800 feet of the summit and then the subsequent death of four climbers. The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2 by Rick Ridgeway. A riveting account by the great American mountaineer and expedition member Rick Ridgeway about the successful 1978 American ascent of K2. The book details all the personal dramas, including a love triangle, as well as the epic conclusion of a new route on K2.K2: The Price of Conquest by Lino Lacedelli and Giovanni Cenacchi. The true story about the first ascent of K2 by its Italian victor, who tells about the lies and deception that allowed him to reach the summit without Walter Bonatti. A controversial revealing story about pride, ambition, and guilt.
