ISLAMABAD: A group of Nepalese climbers made history on Saturday by summiting the world’s second tallest mountain, K2, in winter, according to its team leader who made the announcement on Facebook only minutes after making the accomplishment.
“The Karakorum’s ‘Savage Mountain’ has been summited in the most dangerous season: WINTER,” Chhang Dawa Sherpa exclaimed in his social media post.
His announcement was also confirmed by an official of the Alpine Club of Pakistan which deals with mountaineering expeditions in the country.
At 8,611 meters, K2 was the only peak among the 14 “8000ers” located in the Karakorum and Himalayan mountain ranges that remained unconquered during winter.
Along the icy glaciers of the Karakoram, mountaineers and locals speak about K2 summits with a hushed reverence, and folklore in the area is rife with mythical stories of the mountain “permitting” climbers to reach its top — considered the ultimate honor granted to a mortal by nature.
When a climb doesn't go as planned, locals tell each other the mountain refused to be scaled.
“The Nepalese climbers finally reached the summit of Mt. K2 … this afternoon at 17:00 local time,” Dawa wrote. “This is the first winter ascent of the 2nd highest mountain in the world and the ONLY eight-thousander (8000er) to be climbed in winter. This is a greatest achievement in the history of mountaineering, this is a good example of team work … ‘If a mountain lets you climb it, no one can stop you.’”
#WATCH: Nepalese climber Sona Sherpa, a few meters below the summit, shows a view from the top of K2, the second highest mountain peak in the world || #Pakistan #Nepal #K2Expedition @SST8848
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Video: AFP
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Read: https://t.co/vEbQXYfse3 pic.twitter.com/ZgENjto6BD— Arab News Pakistan (@arabnewspk) January 19, 2021
One of the ten Nepalese climbers, Mingma G, also became the first mountaineer to summit the peak in winter without an oxygen cylinder.
K2 earned the nickname of “savage mountain” since a large number of climbers — 86 in all — lost their lives while trying to scale it.
In 2008, 11 climbers from an international expedition died in what was considered as the single worst accident in the history of mountaineering.
K2 straddles the Pakistan-China border. While it is about two-and-a-half football fields shorter than Everest (8,848 meters), it is widely considered to be the toughest and most dangerous mountain to climb.
More than 300 climbers have scaled K2 in spring and summer. Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were the first to reach its summit in the summer of 1954.
