48 Fun Facts About K2

How high is K2?

K2 is 8,611 m (28,251 ft) high, making it the second-highest mountain on Earth after Everest.

In which mountain range does K2 stand?

The Karakoram, a range generally treated as separate from the Himalayas, has K2 as its highest peak; the Himalayas proper lie to the south-east.

K2 sits on the border between which two countries?

Pakistan and China share the summit: K2 stands on the border between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and China's Xinjiang region, and the Chinese side is far less visited.

Which climber's remark that 'it's a savage mountain that tries to kill you' gave K2 its famous nickname?

George Bell, a member of the 1953 American expedition, told reporters on his return that it was a savage mountain that tries to kill you, and 'the Savage Mountain' stuck.

Before 2021, roughly how many people died on K2 for every four who reached the top?

One death for roughly every four summits: by 2020 fewer than 400 climbers had reached K2's top while about 90 had died on it, the deadliest ratio of any eight-thousander except Annapurna.

From which mountain did Thomas Montgomerie first sketch and label K2 in 1856?

Mount Haramukh, a 5,142 m peak in Kashmir, was the survey station from which Montgomerie sighted two distant peaks in 1856 and labelled them K1 and K2 in his notebook.

Why did the survey label K2 stick as the mountain's name?

The mountain appeared to have no local name: it is barely visible from any inhabited place, so the survey label was kept, whereas K1 took the name locals already used.

What alternative name for K2, honouring an early explorer, was rejected by the RGS but appears on some maps?

Mount Godwin-Austen honours Henry Godwin-Austen, who surveyed the peak's approaches in 1861; the Royal Geographical Society rejected the name, though it appears on several maps.

The suggested local name Chogori derives from Balti words meaning what?

Big peak: Chogori combines the Balti words chhogo, meaning big, and ri, meaning mountain; it underlies the Chinese official name Qogir, though evidence that locals ever used it is scant.

Which mathematician named K3 surfaces partly after the beauty of K2?

André Weil coined the term K3 surface in a 1958 report, writing that it honoured Kummer, Kähler and Kodaira and the beautiful mountain K2 in Kashmir.

A 1986 expedition led by George Wallerstein made what erroneous claim about K2?

That it was taller than Everest: Wallerstein's satellite-based reading suggested K2 topped Everest, and the claim reached reference works before an Italian survey under Ardito Desio corrected it in 1987.

What height did the 2014 'K2 60 Years Later' expedition measure using satellite navigation?

8,609.02 m was the GNSS reading taken on the summit in 2014 by the Pakistani-Italian 'K2 60 Years Later' team, about two metres under the traditional figure that reference works kept.

Which side of K2 has never been climbed, largely because of unstable ice and snow?

The east side of K2 has never been climbed: the East Face's snow and ice formations are unstable and prone to collapse, whereas the West Face was eventually climbed direct by a Russian team.

Which notorious occultist was part of the first serious attempt on K2 in 1902?

Aleister Crowley joined Oscar Eckenstein's 1902 expedition, which spent 68 days on the mountain with only eight clear days and got no higher than about 6,500 m.

The standard route up K2 is named after which nobleman who first attempted it in 1909?

The Duke of the Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, reached about 6,250 m on the south-east spur in 1909, then declared that K2 would never be climbed.

Roughly what share of K2 climbers use the standard south-east ridge route?

75% or so of K2 climbers take that south-east ridge, first tried in 1909, which rises from the glacier at the mountain's foot.

What is the name of the narrow couloir below K2's summit that runs beneath a wall of seracs?

The Bottleneck is the couloir at about 8,200 m below an overhanging serac wall; collapsing ice there killed many of the climbers lost in the 2008 disaster.

Which American led the 1938 reconnaissance and the 1953 expedition on which Art Gilkey died?

Charles Houston, a physician, led the 1938 reconnaissance that reached nearly 8,000 m and the 1953 attempt on which a ten-day storm near 7,800 m forced a retreat.

Who saved almost the entire 1953 American team during a mass fall, an act known simply as The Belay?

Pete Schoening held five falling climbers and the injured Art Gilkey on a single ice-axe belay on 10 August 1953; Gilkey was later swept away, and a memorial cairn honours him.

Which two Italians made the first ascent of K2 on 31 July 1954?

Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni reached the summit on 31 July 1954 using bottled oxygen, on the expedition led by geologist Ardito Desio.

Which two men carried oxygen to 8,100 metres for the 1954 summit pair and bivouacked in the open above 8,000 m?

Walter Bonatti and Amir Mehdi hauled the oxygen sets to about 8,100 m, found no tent waiting and survived a night in the open; Mehdi spent months in hospital and lost his toes to frostbite.

What became of the long-disputed dissenting account of K2's 1954 summit day?

A second official history in 2007 largely confirmed it: the Italian Alpine Club's report accepted that the summit pair had moved the top camp and left the oxygen carriers to bivouac in the open.

Which member of the 1954 Italian team died of pneumonia at Camp II in June, before the summit push?

Mario Puchoz, a guide from Courmayeur, died of pneumonia at Camp II on 21 June 1954, and a memorial cairn near base camp honours him alongside Art Gilkey.

How many years passed between the first ascent of K2 and the second, by a Japanese expedition?

The 1977 team used more than 1,500 porters; Ashraf Aman became the first Pakistani on top.

Who was the first woman to summit K2, on 23 June 1986?

Wanda Rutkiewicz reached the top on 23 June 1986, the first woman on K2; she had also been the first European woman up Everest, in 1978.

Which pope was elected on the day the first woman up K2 summited Everest, in 1978?

John Paul II was elected on 16 October 1978, the same day the climber reached Everest's summit; she met him in Poland the following year and gave him a stone from the mountain.

How many climbers died on K2 during the 1986 season?

13 climbers died on K2 during the 1986 season, across several expeditions; five perished in a single storm between 6 and 10 August, including British expedition leader Alan Rouse.

How many climbers died in the 2008 K2 disaster of 1 August?

11 climbers died on 1 and 2 August 2008 after a serac collapse above the summit couloir swept away the fixed ropes, leaving descending climbers stranded in the dark.

Which Irish climber, the first from his country to summit K2, died in the 2008 disaster?

Ger McDonnell, from County Limerick, became the first Irish climber to summit K2 on 1 August 2008 and died on the descent, reportedly while trying to help stricken Korean climbers.

Which 2000 survival thriller directed by Martin Campbell is set on K2?

Vertical Limit, released in December 2000, stars Chris O'Donnell as a climber racing to rescue his sister from a crevasse high on K2.

The 1978 American ascent, the third of K2, opened which new route?

The Northeast Ridge was the line of Jim Whittaker's 1978 expedition; Jim Wickwire and Louis Reichardt reached the summit on 6 September, and Wickwire survived a bivouac about 150 m below the top.

Which route, first climbed by Kukuczka and Piotrowski in 1986, did Reinhold Messner call suicidal?

The Polish Line on the South Face was climbed in July 1986 by Jerzy Kukuczka and Tadeusz Piotrowski; Piotrowski fell to his death on the descent, and the route went unrepeated for decades.

Which nickname for K2 was popularised by Reinhold Messner in his book about it?

The Mountain of Mountains is the title of Reinhold Messner's 1980 book (K2: Mountain of Mountains), written after his 1979 ascent, and the phrase became a standard nickname.

In what year did K2, the last eight-thousander without a winter ascent, finally get one?

2021: a team of Nepali climbers reached the summit on 16 January 2021 in temperatures around minus 40, completing the last winter first among the fourteen eight-thousanders.

How many Nepali climbers made K2's first winter summit together?

10 climbers, all Nepali, stepped onto the summit together on 16 January singing the national anthem; only one of them went without bottled oxygen.

Who was the only member of the first winter summit team to climb without supplemental oxygen?

Nirmal Purja, the former Gurkha who had climbed all fourteen eight-thousanders in 2019, was the one member of the team without supplemental oxygen that day.

Which Polish climber led the 2002-03 and 2017-18 winter attempts on K2?

Krzysztof Wielicki led both the 2002-03 Netia expedition and the 2017-18 Polish national winter expedition; Andrzej Zawada had led the first winter attempt in 1987-88.

Who became the first person to ski from K2's summit to base camp, in July 2018?

Andrzej Bargiel skied the whole way from the summit to base camp on 22 July 2018 without removing his skis; Swede Fredrik Ericsson had died attempting such a descent in 2010.

What record was set on 22 July 2022?

145 summits in a single day were recorded on 22 July 2022 as commercial clients queued on fixed ropes; the season's roughly 200 summits more than tripled the previous annual record, set in 2018.

Which Spanish climber became the oldest person to summit K2, at 65, in 2004?

Carlos Soria Fontán, a Spaniard born in 1939, summited K2 in 2004 at 65 and kept climbing eight-thousanders into his late seventies, topping Annapurna at 77 in 2016.

Who was the first woman to climb all fourteen eight-thousanders without oxygen, finishing in 2011?

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, an Austrian, completed the fourteen without bottled oxygen by summiting K2 via the North Ridge on 23 August 2011; Kazakhs Maxut Zhumayev and Vassiliy Pivtsov finished their own quests the same day.

Roughly how much oxygen is available at K2's summit compared with sea level?

One-third: air pressure at about 8,600 m is roughly a third of that at sea level, so each breath delivers about a third of the oxygen, which is why the summit lies deep in the death zone.

Up which glacier, about 63 km long, do K2 expeditions trek from Askole to Concordia?

The Baltoro, roughly 63 km long, is the glacier highway from Askole to Concordia, where K2 first comes fully into view for trekkers and expeditions.

What does the Turkic name of K2's mountain range mean?

Black gravel: the range's name joins Turkic qara, meaning black, with qorum, meaning gravel or rubble, after the dark scree of its passes; early travellers also called it Muztagh.

What were K3, K4 and K5 in the original survey eventually renamed?

Gasherbrum IV, Gasherbrum II, Gasherbrum I: Montgomerie's K3, K4 and K5 were later identified as those three Gasherbrum peaks, the last two of them eight-thousanders.

The rarely climbed North Ridge on the Chinese side requires crossing which hazardous river?

The Shaksgam, a glacial river on the Chinese side, must be forded, often by camel, to reach the North Ridge; the route's top camp, the Eagle's Nest, sits at about 7,900 m.

Which Czech climber was the first person to summit K2 twice?

Josef Rakoncaj reached the summit via the North Ridge with an Italian expedition in 1983 and again by the standard south-east ridge in 1986, the first person to climb K2 twice.

How much does K2 rise above the K2 Glacier on its steepest, northern side?

Over 3,200 metres of rise in only about 3,000 m of horizontal distance makes the north face K2's steepest flank, a pyramid that drops almost straight to the K2 Glacier.