K2 is one of the world's toughest climbs and has claimed the lives of more than 80 climbers. Mountaineers call it the Savage Mountain. It is both physically demanding and technically difficult, with a notorious couloir or gully towards the summit known as the Bottleneck that has traditionally been a major challenge for even the most experienced climbers.
K2 is a lot steeper than Everest. Basically, it's a giant pyramid. There are no easy routes, they are all hard. It also has its own weather system. The key factor that makes K2 challenging to climb, is its slopes that rise at 45 degrees angles or more and its surface characterized by limestone and ice. The mountain does not forgive any mistakes. The chance to die from a fall or from being hit by an icefall is disproportionately high.
The good weather rarely lasts long enough to complete an ascent. But for the hardcore, this is much of the attraction. For climbers and adventurers seeking the ultimate challenge for body and mind, there is nothing to match reaching the summit of K2. It’s the mountain of mountains, the climbers' summit. And for those who do succeed on reaching the top, it is an accomplishment.
On 1 August 2008, twenty-five climbers left Camp 4 to reach the summit of K2. It was a perfect day for climbing, one in a million, yet it turned out to be the deadliest day on the mountain when eleven climbers tragically died. They were swept away by avalanches, left dangling at the ends of their ropes and crushed by ice seracs.
Several factors led to the accident, including miscalculation, initial delays, traffic jam, and serac falls cutting off fixed ropes. They were a series of events, some preventable, some not. But what it had in common with many mountaineering disasters, including the 1996 Everest Disaster, was the continuation of a summit push past the safe turnaround time.
This is the story of the 2008 K2 Disaster.
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8 ноя 2023
