List of past presumed highest mountains

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The following is a list of mountains that have been presumed, at one time, to be the highest mountain in the world. How general the following presumptions were is unclear.

Chimborazo, 6,267 metres (20,561 ft). Presumed highest from sixteenth century until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Not in the top 100 highest mountains.
Nanda Devi, 7,816 metres (25,643 ft). Presumed highest in the world before Kangchenjunga was sighted in an era when Nepal was still closed to the world. Now known to be the 23rd highest mountain in the world.
Dhaulagiri, 8,167 metres (26,795 ft). Presumed highest from 1808 until 1838. Now known to be the 7th highest mountain in the world.
Kangchenjunga, 8,586 metres (28,169 ft). Presumed highest from 1838 until 1852. Now known to be the 3rd highest mountain in the world.
Mount Everest, 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). Established as highest in 1852.
[edit] Related notes
This list has no relevance before the first world-wide explorations in the sixteenth century.
The summit of Chimborazo is in fact the farthest point from the Earth's center, due to the equatorial bulge. (There may be a close tie with Huascarán.)
An inaccurate survey in the 1980s led to claims that K2, 8,611 metres (28,251 ft), was in fact higher than Everest. These claims were widely reported but were found to have no validity.
[edit] See also
World altitude record (mountaineering)



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Mount everest

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
"Everest" redirects here. For other uses, see Everest (disambiguation).
"Chomolungma" redirects here. For the song of this name, see Alan Parsons.



Mount Everest

Everest from Kala Patthar in Nepal

Mount EverestLocation within Nepal on the Nepal–China border
Elevation 8,848 metres (29,029 ft)[1]
Ranked 1st
Location Solukhumbu, Sagarmatha, Nepal
Tingri, Xigazê, Tibet, China[2]
Range Mahalangur Himal, Himalaya
Prominence 8,848 m (29,029 ft)
Notice special definition for Everest.
Coordinates 27°59′17″N 86°55′31″E / 27.98806°N 86.92528°E / 27.98806; 86.92528Coordinates: 27°59′17″N 86°55′31″E / 27.98806°N 86.92528°E / 27.98806; 86.92528[3]
First ascent 29 May 1953
Edmund Hillary
Tenzing Norgay
Easiest route South Col (Nepal)
Listing Seven Summits
Eight-thousander
Country high point
Ultra



Location on Earth

Mount Everest relief map
Mount Everest – also called Sagarmāthā (Nepali: सगरमाथा), Chomolungma or Qomolangma (Tibetan: ཇོ་མོ་གླང་མ) or Zhumulangma (Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰 Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng) – is the highest mountain on Earth, and the highest point on the Earth's continental crust, as measured by the height above sea level of its summit, 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, and Tibet, China.

In 1856, the Great Trigonometric Survey of India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at 29,002 ft (8,840 m). In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon recommendation of Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India at the time. Chomolungma had been in common use by Tibetans for centuries, but Waugh was unable to propose an established local name because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners.

The highest mountain in the world attracts climbers of all levels, from well experienced mountaineers to novice climbers willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. The mountain, while not posing substantial technical climbing difficulty on the standard route (other eight-thousanders such as K2 or Nanga Parbat are much more difficult), still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather and wind. By the end of the 2008 climbing season, there had been 4,102 ascents to the summit by about 2,700 individuals.[4] Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to US $ 25,000 per person.[5] Everest has claimed 210 lives, including eight who perished during a 1996 storm high on the mountain. Conditions are so difficult in the death zone that most corpses have been left where they fell. Some of them are visible from standard climbing routes.[6]

Contents [hide]
1 Identifying the highest mountain
2 Naming
3 Measurement
3.1 Comparisons
4 Climbing routes
4.1 Southeast ridge
4.2 Northeast ridge
5 Ascents
5.1 Early expeditions
5.2 First successful ascent by Tenzing and Hillary
5.3 First ascents without supplemental oxygen
5.4 First Winter Ascent
5.5 1996 disaster
5.6 2005 - Helicopter landing
5.7 2006 - David Sharp controversy
5.8 2008 - Summer Olympic torch summit
5.9 Various records
6 Death zone
7 Using bottled oxygen
8 Thefts and other crimes
9 Flora and fauna
10 Geology
11 See also
12 Bibliography
13 References
14 External links


Identifying the highest mountain
In 1808, the British began the Great Trigonometric Survey of India to determine the location and names of the world's highest mountains. Starting in southern India, the survey teams gradually moved northward using giant 500 kg (1,100 lb) theodolites (each requiring 12 men to carry) to measure heights as accurately as possible. They reached the Himalayan foothills by the 1830s, but Nepal was unwilling to allow the British to enter the country because of suspicions of political aggression and possible annexation. Several requests by the surveyors to enter Nepal were turned down.[7]

The British were forced to continue their observations from Terai, a region south of Nepal which is parallel to the Himalayas. Conditions in Terai were difficult owing to torrential rains and malaria — three survey officers died from malaria while two others had to retire owing to failing health.[7]

Nonetheless, in 1847, the British pressed on and began detailed observations of the Himalayan peaks from observation stations up to 240 km (150 mi) away. Weather restricted work to the last three months of the year. In November 1847, Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India made a number of observations from Sawajpore station located in the eastern end of the Himalayas. At the time, Kangchenjunga was considered the highest peak in the world, and with interest he noted a peak beyond it, some 230 km (140 mi) away. John Armstrong, one of Waugh's officials, also saw the peak from a location further west and called it peak 'b'. Waugh would later write that the observations indicated that peak 'b' was higher than Kangchenjunga, but given the great distance of the observations, closer observations were required for verification. The following year, Waugh sent a survey official back to Terai to make closer observations of peak 'b', but clouds thwarted all attempts.[7]

In 1849, Waugh dispatched James Nicolson to the area. Nicolson was able to make two observations from Jirol, 190 km (120 mi) away. Nicolson then took the largest theodolite and headed east, obtaining over 30 observations from five different locations, with the closest being 174 km (108 mi) away from the peak.[7]

Nicolson retreated to Patna on the Ganges to perform the necessary calculations based on his observations. His raw data gave an average height of 9,200 m (30,000 ft) for peak 'b', but this did not take into account light refraction which distorts heights. The number clearly indicated, however, that peak 'b' was higher than Kangchenjunga. Unfortunately, Nicolson came down with malaria and was forced to return home, calculations unfinished. Michael Hennessy, one of Waugh's assistants, had begun designating peaks based on Roman Numerals, with Kangchenjunga named Peak IX, while peak 'b' now became known as Peak XV.[7]

In 1852, stationed at the survey's headquarters in Dehradun, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor from Bengal, was the first to identify Everest as the world's highest peak, using trigonometric calculations based on Nicolson's measurements.[8] An official announcement that Peak XV was the highest was delayed for several years as the calculations were repeatedly verified. Waugh began work on Nicolson's data in 1854, and along with his staff spent almost two years working on the calculations, having to deal with the problems of light refraction, barometric pressure, and temperature over the vast distances of the observations. Finally, in March 1856 he announced his findings in a letter to his deputy in Kolkata. Kangchenjunga was declared to be 28,156 ft (8,582 m), while Peak XV was given the height of 29,002 ft (8,840 m). Waugh concluded that Peak XV was "most probably the highest in the world".[7] In actuality, Peak XV (measured in feet) was calculated to be exactly 29,000 ft (8,839.2 m) high, but was publicly declared to be 29,002 ft (8,839.8 m). The arbitrary addition of 2 ft (61 cm) was to avoid the impression that an exact height of 29,000 feet (8,839.2 m) was nothing more than a rounded estimate.[9]

Naming
With the height now established, what to name the peak was clearly the next challenge. While the survey was anxious to preserve local names if possible (e.g. Kangchenjunga and Dhaulagiri) Waugh argued that he was unable to find any commonly used local name. Waugh's search for a local name was hampered by Nepal and Tibet being closed to foreigners at the time. Many local names existed, with perhaps the best known in Tibet for several centuries being Chomolungma, which had appeared on a 1733 map published in Paris by the French geographer D'Anville. However, Waugh argued that with the plethora of local names, it would be difficult to favour one specific name over all others. So, he decided that Peak XV should be named after George Everest, his predecessor as Surveyor General of India.[7][10] He wrote:

I was taught by my respected chief and predecessor, Colonel Sir George Everest to assign to every geographical object its true local or native appellation. But here is a mountain, most probably the highest in the world, without any local name that we can discover, whose native appellation, if it has any, will not very likely be ascertained before we are allowed to penetrate into Nepal. In the meantime the privilege as well as the duty devolves on me to assign…a name whereby it may be known among citizens and geographers and become a household word among civilized nations.[11]

George Everest opposed the name suggested by Waugh and told the Royal Geographical Society in 1857 that Everest could not be written in Hindi nor pronounced by "the native of India". Waugh's proposed name prevailed despite the objections, and in 1865, the Royal Geographical Society officially adopted Mount Everest as the name for the highest mountain in the world.[7] Interestingly, the modern pronunciation of Everest /ˈɛvərɨst, ˈɛvrɨst/[12] is in fact different from Sir George's pronunciation of his surname, which was /ˈiːvrɨst/.[13]


Aerial view of Mount Everest from the southThe Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma or Qomolangma (ཇོ་མོ་གླིང་མ, which means "Saint Mother"), and the Chinese transliteration is Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng (simplified Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰; traditional Chinese: 珠穆朗瑪峰), which refers to Earth Mother; the Chinese translation is Shèngmǔ Fēng (simplified Chinese: 圣母峰; traditional Chinese: 聖母峰), which refers to Holy Mother. According to English accounts of the mid-19th century, the local name in Darjeeling for Mount Everest was Deodungha (meaning "holy mountain").[14]

In the late 19th century, many European cartographers incorrectly believed that a native name for the mountain was Gaurisankar.[15] This was a result of confusion of Mount Everest with the actual Gauri Sankar, which, when viewed from Kathmandu, stands almost directly in front of Everest.[citation needed]

In the early 1960s, the Nepalese government gave Mount Everest the official name Sagarmāthā (सगरमाथा).[16] This name had not previously been used; the local inhabitants knew the mountain as Chomolungma. The mountain was not known and named in ethnic Nepal (that is, the Kathmandu valley and surrounding areas).[citation needed] The government set out to find a Nepalese name for the mountain because the Sherpa/Tibetan name Chomolangma was not acceptable, as it would have been against the idea of unification (Nepalization) of the country.[citation needed]

In 2002, the Chinese People's Daily newspaper published an article making a case against the continued use of the English name for the mountain in the Western world, insisting that it should be referred to by its Tibetan name. The newspaper argued that the Chinese (in nature a Tibetan) name preceded the English one, as Mount Qomolangma was marked on a Chinese map more than 280 years ago.[17]

Measurement

Another aerial view of Mount Everest from the south, with Lhotse in front and Nuptse on the leftIn 1856, Andrew Waugh announced Everest (then known as Peak XV) as 8,840 metres (29,003 ft) high, after several years of calculations based on observations made by the Great Trigonometric Survey.

More recently, the mountain has been found to be 8,848 m (29,029 ft) high, although there is some variation in the measurements. On 9 October 2005, after several months of measurement and calculation, the PRC's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping officially announced the height of Everest as 8,844.43 m (29,017.16 ft) with accuracy of ±0.21 m (0.69 ft). They claimed it was the most accurate and precise measurement to date.[18] This height is based on the actual highest point of rock and not on the snow and ice covering it. The Chinese team also measured a snow/ice depth of 3.5 m (11 ft),[19] which is in agreement with a net elevation of 8,848 m (29,029 ft). The snow and ice thickness varies over time, making a definitive height of the snow cap impossible to determine.

The elevation of 8,848 m (29,029 ft) was first determined by an Indian survey in 1955, made closer to the mountain, also using theodolites. It was subsequently reaffirmed by a 1975 Chinese measurement.[19] In both cases the snow cap, not the rock head, was measured. In May 1999 an American Everest Expedition, directed by Bradford Washburn, anchored a GPS unit into the highest bedrock. A rock head elevation of 8,850 m (29,035 ft), and a snow/ice elevation 1 m (3 ft) higher, were obtained via this device.[20] Although it has not been officially recognized by Nepal,[21] this figure is widely quoted. Geoid uncertainty casts doubt upon the accuracy claimed by both the 1999 and 2005 surveys.

A detailed photogrammetric map (at a scale of 1:50,000) of the Khumbu region, including the south side of Mount Everest, was made by Erwin Schneider as part of the 1955 International Himalayan Expedition, which also attempted Lhotse. An even more detailed topographic map of the Everest area was made in the late 1980s under the direction of Bradford Washburn, using extensive aerial photography.[22]

It is thought that the plate tectonics of the area are adding to the height and moving the summit northeastwards. Two accounts suggest the rates of change are 4 mm (0.16 in) per year (upwards) and 3 to 6 mm (0.12 to 0.24 in) per year (northeastwards),[20][23] but another account mentions more lateral movement (27 mm/1.1 in),[24] and even shrinkage has been suggested.[25]

Comparisons
Everest is the mountain whose summit attains the greatest distance above sea level. Several other mountains are sometimes claimed as alternative "tallest mountains on Earth". Mauna Kea in Hawaii is tallest when measured from its base;[26] it rises over 10,200 m (6.3 mi) when measured from its base on the mid-ocean floor, but only attains 4,205 m (13,796 ft) above sea level.

By the same measure of base[26] to summit, Mount McKinley, in Alaska, is also taller than Everest. Despite its height above sea level of only 6,193.6 m (20,320 ft), Mount McKinley sits atop a sloping plain with elevations from 300 m (980 ft) to 900 m (3,000 ft), yielding a height above base in the range of 5,300 to 5,900 m (17,000 to 19,000 ft); a commonly quoted figure is 5,600 m (18,400 ft).[27] By comparison, reasonable base elevations for Everest range from 4,200 m (13,800 ft) on the south side to 5,200 m (17,100 ft) on the Tibetan Plateau, yielding a height above base in the range of 3,650 to 4,650 m (12,000 to 15,300 ft).[22]

The summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is 2,168 m (7,113 ft) farther from the Earth's centre (6,384.4 km (3,967.1 mi)) than that of Everest (6,382.3 km (3,965.8 mi)), because the Earth bulges at the Equator. However, Chimborazo attains a height of only 6,267 m (20,561 ft) above sea level, and by this criterion it is not even the highest peak of the Andes.

Climbing routes

Southern and northern climbing routes as seen from the International Space Station.Mt. Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet, as well as many other less frequently climbed routes.[28] Of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and is the more frequently-used route. It was the route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 and the first recognized of fifteen routes to the top by 1996.[28] This was, however, a route decision dictated more by politics than by design as the Chinese border was closed to the western world in the 1950s after the People's Republic of China took over Tibet.[29]





View from space showing South Col route and North Col/Ridge route
Most attempts are made during May before the summer monsoon season. As the monsoon season approaches, a change in the jet stream at this time pushes it northward, thereby reducing the average wind speeds high on the mountain.[30][31] While attempts are sometimes made after the monsoons in September and October, when the jet stream is again temporarily pushed northward, the additional snow deposited by the monsoons and the less stable weather patterns (tail end of the monsoon) makes climbing extremely difficult.

Southeast ridge
The ascent via the southeast ridge begins with a trek to Base Camp at 5,380 m (17,700 ft) on the south side of Everest in Nepal. Expeditions usually fly into Lukla (2,860 m) from Kathmandu and pass through Namche Bazaar. Climbers then hike to Base Camp, which usually takes six to eight days, allowing for proper altitude acclimatization in order to prevent altitude sickness.[32] Climbing equipment and supplies are carried by yaks, dzopkyos (yak hybrids) and human porters to Base Camp on the Khumbu Glacier. When Hillary and Tenzing climbed Everest in 1953, they started from Kathmandu Valley, as there were no roads further east at that time.

Climbers will spend a couple of weeks in Base Camp, acclimatizing to the altitude. During that time, Sherpas and some expedition climbers will set up ropes and ladders in the treacherous Khumbu Icefall. Seracs, crevasses and shifting blocks of ice make the icefall one of the most dangerous sections of the route. Many climbers and Sherpas have been killed in this section. To reduce the hazard, climbers will usually begin their ascent well before dawn when the freezing temperatures glue ice blocks in place. Above the icefall is Camp I at 6,065 metres (19,900 ft).

From Camp I, climbers make their way up the Western Cwm to the base of the Lhotse face, where Camp II or Advanced Base Camp (ABC) is established at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). The Western Cwm is a relatively flat, gently rising glacial valley, marked by huge lateral crevasses in the centre which prevent direct access to the upper reaches of the Cwm. Climbers are forced to cross on the far right near the base of Nuptse to a small passageway known as the "Nuptse corner". The Western Cwm is also called the "Valley of Silence" as the topography of the area generally cuts off wind from the climbing route. The high altitude and a clear, windless day can make the Western Cwm unbearably hot for climbers.[33]

From ABC, climbers ascend the Lhotse face on fixed ropes up to Camp III, located on a small ledge at 7,470 m (24,500 ft). From there, it is another 500 metres to Camp IV on the South Col at 7,920 m (26,000 ft). From Camp III to Camp IV, climbers are faced with two additional challenges: The Geneva Spur and The Yellow Band. The Geneva Spur is an anvil shaped rib of black rock named by a 1952 Swiss expedition. Fixed ropes assist climbers in scrambling over this snow covered rock band. The Yellow Band is a section of interlayered marble, phyllite, and semischist which also requires about 100 metres of rope for traversing it.[33]

On the South Col, climbers enter the death zone. Climbers typically only have a maximum of two or three days they can endure at this altitude for making summit bids. Clear weather and low winds are critical factors in deciding whether to make a summit attempt. If weather does not cooperate within these short few days, climbers are forced to descend, many all the way back down to Base Camp.


A view of Everest southeast ridge base camp. The Khumbu Icefall can be seen in the left. In the center are the remains of a helicopter that crashed in 2003.From Camp IV, climbers will begin their summit push around midnight with hopes of reaching the summit (still another 1,000 metres above) within 10 to 12 hours. Climbers will first reach "The Balcony" at 8,400 m (27,600 ft), a small platform where they can rest and gaze at peaks to the south and east in the early dawn of light. Continuing up the ridge, climbers are then faced with a series of imposing rock steps which usually forces them to the east into waist deep snow, a serious avalanche hazard. At 8,750 m (28,700 ft), a small table-sized dome of ice and snow marks the South Summit.[33]

From the South Summit, climbers follow the knife-edge southeast ridge along what is known as the "Cornice traverse" where snow clings to intermittent rock. This is the most exposed section of the climb as a misstep to the left would send one 2,400 m (8,000 ft) down the southwest face while to the immediate right is the 3,050 m (10,000 ft) Kangshung face. At the end of this traverse is an imposing 12 m (40 ft) rock wall called the "Hillary Step" at 8,760 m (28,740 ft).[33]

Hillary and Tenzing were the first climbers to ascend this step and they did it with primitive ice climbing equipment and with ropes. Nowadays, climbers will ascend this step using fixed ropes previously set up by Sherpas. Once above the step, it is a comparatively easy climb to the top on moderately angled snow slopes - though the exposure on the ridge is extreme especially while traversing very large cornices of snow. With increasing numbers of people climbing the mountain in recent years, the Step has frequently become a bottleneck, with climbers forced to wait significant amounts of time for their turn on the ropes, leading to problems in getting climbers efficiently up and down the mountain. After the Hillary Step, climbers also must traverse a very loose and rocky section that has a very large entanglement of fixed ropes that can be troublesome in bad weather. Climbers will typically spend less than a half-hour on the "top of the world" as they realize the need to descend to Camp IV before darkness sets in, afternoon weather becomes a serious problem, or supplemental oxygen tanks run out.

Northeast ridge

Mount Everest north face from Rongbuk in TibetThe northeast ridge route begins from the north side of Everest in Tibet. Expeditions trek to the Rongbuk Glacier, setting up Base Camp at 5,180 m (16,990 ft) on a gravel plain just below the glacier. To reach Camp II, climbers ascend the medial moraine of the east Rongbuk Glacier up to the base of Changtse at around 6,100 m (20,000 ft). Camp III (ABC - Advanced Base Camp) is situated below the North Col at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). To reach Camp IV on the north col, climbers ascend the glacier to the foot of the col where fixed ropes are used to reach the North Col at 7,010 m (23,000 ft). From the North Col, climbers ascend the rocky north ridge to set up Camp V at around 7,775 m (25,500 ft). The route crosses the North Face in a diagonal climb to the base of the Yellow Band reaching the site of Camp VI at 8,230 m (27,000 ft). From Camp VI, climbers will make their final summit push. Climbers face a treacherous traverse from the base of the First Step: 27,890 feet - 28,000 feet, to the crux of the climb, the Second Step: 28,140 feet - 28,300 feet. (The Second Step includes a climbing aid called the "Chinese ladder", a metal ladder placed semi-permanently in 1975 by a party of Chinese climbers. It has been almost continuously in place since, and is used by virtually all climbers on the route.) Once above the Second Step the inconsequential Third Step is clambered over: 28,510 feet - 28,870 feet. Once above these steps, the summit pyramid is climbed by means of a snow slope of 50 degrees, to the final summit ridge along which the top is reached.[34]

Ascents
Main article: Timeline of climbing Mount Everest
Early expeditions

Rongbuk Monastery in Tibet with the north side of Everest in the background.In 1885, Clinton Thomas Dent, president of the Alpine Club, suggested that climbing Mount Everest was possible in his book Above the Snow Line.[35]

The northern approach to the mountain was discovered by George Mallory on the first expedition in 1921. It was an exploratory expedition not equipped for a serious attempt to climb the mountain. With Mallory leading (and thus becoming the first European to set foot on Everest's flanks) they climbed the North Col 7,007 metres (22,989 ft). From there, Mallory espied a route to the top, but the party was unprepared for the great task of climbing any further and descended.

The British returned for a 1922 expedition. George Finch ("The other George") climbed using oxygen for the first time. He ascended at a remarkable speed — 950 feet (290 m) per hour, and reached an altitude of 8,320 m (27,300 ft), the first time a human climbed higher than 8,000m. This feat was entirely lost on the British climbing establishment — except for its "unsporting" nature. Mallory and Col. Felix Norton made a second unsuccessful attempt. Mallory was faulted for leading a group down from the North Col which got caught in an avalanche. Mallory was pulled down too, but seven native porters were killed.

The next Expedition was in 1924. The initial attempt by Mallory and Bruce, was aborted when weather conditions precluded the establishment of Camp VI. The next attempt was that of Norton and Somervell who climbed without oxygen and in perfect weather, traversing the North Face into the Great Couloir. Norton managed to reach 8,558 metres (28,077 ft), though he ascended only 100 feet (30 m) or so in the last hour. Mallory rustled up oxygen equipment for a last-ditch effort. He chose the young Andrew Irvine as his partner.

On 8 June 1924 George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made an attempt on the summit via the North Col/North Ridge/Northeast Ridge route from which they never returned. On 1 May 1999 the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found Mallory's body on the North Face in a snow basin below and to the west of the traditional site of Camp VI. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community as to whether or not one or both of them reached the summit 29 years before the confirmed ascent (and of course, safe descent) of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

In 1933, Lady Houston, a British millionaire ex-showgirl, funded the Houston Everest Flight of 1933, which saw a formation of aircraft led by the Marquess of Clydesdale fly over the summit in an effort to deploy the British Union Flag at the top.[36][37]

Early expeditions — such as Bruce's in the 1920s and Hugh Ruttledge's two unsuccessful attempts in 1933 and 1936 — tried to make an ascent of the mountain from Tibet, via the north face. Access was closed from the north to western expeditions in 1950, after the Chinese asserted control over Tibet. In 1950, Bill Tilman and a small party which included Charles Houston, Oscar Houston and Betsy Cowles undertook an exploratory expedition to Everest through Nepal along the route which has now become the standard approach to Everest from the south.[38]

In the spring of 1952 a Swiss expedition, lead by Edouard Wyss-Dunant was granted permission to attempt a climb from Nepal. The expedition established a route through the Khumbu ice fall and ascended to the South Col at an elevation of 7,986 metres (26,201 ft). Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were able to reach a height of about 8,595 metres (28,199 ft) on the southeast ridge, setting a new climbing altitude record. Tenzing's experience was useful when he was hired to be part of the British expedition in 1953.[39]

First successful ascent by Tenzing and Hillary
In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair (Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans) came within 100 m (300 feet) of the summit on 26 May 1953, but turned back after becoming exhausted. As planned, their work in route finding and breaking trail and their caches of extra oxygen were of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its second climbing pair, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal. They reached the summit at 11:30 a.m. local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col Route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first.[40] They paused at the summit to take photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending.

News of the expedition's success reached London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, June 2. Returning to Kathmandu a few days later, Hunt (a Briton) and Hillary (a subject of Elizabeth, through her role as head of state of New Zealand) discovered that they had been promptly knighted in the Order of the British Empire, a KBE, for the ascent. Tenzing (a subject of the King of Nepal) was granted the George Medal by the UK. Hunt was ultimately made a life peer in Britain, while Hillary became a founding member of the Order of New Zealand.

First ascents without supplemental oxygen
On 8 May 1978, Reinhold Messner (Italy) and Peter Habeler (Austria) made the first ascent without supplemental oxygen, using the southeast ridge route.[28][41] On 20 August 1980, Messner reached the summit of the mountain solo for the first time, without supplementary oxygen or support, on the more difficult Northwest route via the North Col to the North Face and the Great Couloir. He climbed for three days entirely alone from his base camp at 6,500 metres (21,300 ft).[28]

First Winter Ascent
In 1980, a team from Poland led by Andrzej Zawada, Leszek Cichy, and Krzysztof Wielicki became the first to reach the summit during the winter season.

1996 disaster
Main article: 1996 Everest disaster
During the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people died trying to come down from the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history. Eight of them died on 11 May alone. The disaster gained wide publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.

Journalist Jon Krakauer, on assignment from Outside magazine, was in one of the affected parties, and afterwards published the bestseller Into Thin Air, which related his experience. Anatoli Boukreev, a guide who felt impugned by Krakauer's book, co-authored a rebuttal book called The Climb. The dispute sparked a large debate within the climbing community. In May 2004, Kent Moore, a physicist, and John L. Semple, a surgeon, both researchers from the University of Toronto, told New Scientist magazine that an analysis of weather conditions on 11 May suggested that freak weather caused oxygen levels to plunge approximately 14%.[42][43]

The storm's impact on climbers on the mountain's other side, the North Ridge, where several climbers also died, was detailed in a first hand account by British filmmaker and writer Matt Dickinson in his book The Other Side of Everest.

2005 - Helicopter landing
On 14 May 2005, pilot Didier Delsalle of France landed a Eurocopter AS 350 B3 helicopter on the summit of Mount Everest[44] (without any witness) and took off after about four minutes. (His rotors were continually engaged, constituting a "hover landing", and avoiding the risks of relying on the snow to support the aircraft.) He thereby set rotorcraft world records, for highest of both landing (de facto) and take-off (formally).[45]

Delsalle had also performed, two days earlier, a take-off from the South Col; some press reports suggested that the report of the summit landing was a misunderstanding of a South Col one.[46]

2006 - David Sharp controversy
Double-amputee climber Mark Inglis revealed in an interview with the press on 23 May 2006[47], that his climbing party, and many others, had passed a distressed climber, David Sharp, on 15 May, sheltering under a rock overhang 450 metres below the summit, without attempting a rescue. The revelation sparked wide debate on climbing ethics, especially as applied to Everest. The climbers who left him said that the rescue efforts would have been useless and only have caused more deaths. Much of this controversy was captured by the Discovery Channel while filming the television program Everest: Beyond the Limit. A crucial decision affecting the fate of Sharp is shown in the program, where an early returning climber (Max Chaya) is descending and radios to his base camp manager (Russell Brice) that he has found a climber in distress. He is unable to identify Sharp, who had chosen to climb solo without any support and so did not identify himself to other climbers. The base camp manager assumes that Sharp is part of a group that has abandoned him, and informs his climber that there is no chance of him being able to help Sharp. As Sharp's condition deteriorates through the day and other descending climbers pass him, his opportunities for rescue diminish: his legs and feet curl from frost-bite, preventing him from walking; the later descending climbers are lower on oxygen and lack the strength to offer aid; time runs out for any Sherpas to return and rescue him. Most importantly, Sharp's decision to forgo all support leaves him with no margin for recovery.

As this debate raged, on 26 May, Australian climber Lincoln Hall was found alive, after being declared dead the day before. He was found by a party of four climbers (Dan Mazur, Andrew Brash, Myles Osborne and Jangbu Sherpa) who, giving up their own summit attempt, stayed with Hall and descended with him and a party of 11 Sherpas sent up to carry him down. Hall later fully recovered. Similar actions have been recorded since, including on 21 May 2007, when Canadian climber Meagan McGrath initiated the successful high-altitude rescue of Nepali Usha Bista.

2008 - Summer Olympic torch summit
Main article: 2008 Summer Olympics summit of Mt. Everest
China paved a 130 km (81 mi) dirt road from Tingri County to its Base Camp in order to accommodate growing numbers of climbers on the north side of the mountain. It will become the highest asphalt-paved road in the world. Construction began on 18 June 2007 at a cost of 150 million yuan (US$19.7 million). China also routed the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay over Everest, via the North Col route, on the way to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[48] A China Telecom cellular tower near the Base Camp provides phone coverage all the way to the summit.[49]

Various records
According to the Nepalese government, the youngest person to climb Mount Everest was Ming Kipa Sherpa, a 15-year-old Sherpa girl,[50] and the youngest non-Nepalese was 17-year-old Malibu resident Johnny Strange in May 2009.[51] Apa Sherpa holds the record for reaching the summit more times than any other person (19 times as of May 2009[update]).

The fastest ascent over the northeast ridge was accomplished in 2007 by Austrian climber Christian Stangl, who needed 16h 42min for the 10 km distance from Camp III to the summit, just barely beating Italian Hans Kammerlander's record of 17 hours, accomplished in 1996. Both men climbed alone and without supplementary oxygen. The fastest oxygen-supported ascent over the southeast ridge was Nepalese Pemba Dorjie Sherpa's 2004 climb, using 8h 10min for the 17 km route. The fastest ascent without supplementary oxygen over the southeast ridge was accomplished by French Marc Batard who needed 22h 30min in 1988.[52]

The oldest climber to successfully reach Mt. Everest's summit is 76-year-old Min Bahadur Sherchan, who did so 25 May 2008 from the Nepal side. Sherchan beat the previous record set in 2007 by 71 year old Katsusuke Yanagisawa.[53]

Death zone
Main article: Death zone
While conditions classifying an area as a death zone apply to Mount Everest (altitudes higher than 8,000 m/26,246 ft), it is significantly more difficult for a climber to survive at the death zone on Mount Everest.[citation needed] Temperatures can dip to very low levels, resulting in frostbite of any body part exposed to the air. Since temperatures are so low, snow is well-frozen in certain areas and death by slipping and falling can also occur. High winds at these altitudes on Everest are also a potential threat to climbers. The atmospheric pressure at the top of Everest is about a third of sea level pressure, meaning there is about a third as much oxygen available to breathe as at sea level.[54]

In May 2007, the Caudwell Xtreme Everest undertook a medical study of oxygen levels in human blood at extreme altitude. Over 200 volunteers climbed to Everest Base Camp where various medical tests were performed to examine blood oxygen levels. A small team also performed tests on the way to the summit.[55]

Even at base camp the low level of available oxygen had direct effect on blood oxygen saturation levels. At sea level these are usually 98% to 99%, but at base camp this fell to between 85% and 87%. Blood samples taken at the summit indicated very low levels of oxygen present. A side effect of this is a vastly increased breathing rate, from 20-30 breaths per minute to 80-90 breaths, leading to exhaustion just trying to breathe.[citation needed]

Lack of oxygen, exhaustion, extreme cold, and the dangers of the climb all contribute to the death toll. A person who is injured so he can't walk himself is in serious trouble since it is often extremely risky to try to carry someone out, and generally impractical to use a helicopter.

People who die during the climb are typically left behind. About 150 bodies have never been recovered. It is not uncommon to find corpses near the standard climbing routes.[56]

Using bottled oxygen

Northern panoramic view of Everest from Tibetan PlateauMost expeditions use oxygen masks and tanks above 8,000 m (26,246 ft).[57] Everest can be climbed without supplementary oxygen, but this increases the risk to the climber. Humans do not think clearly with low oxygen, and the combination of severe weather, low temperatures, and steep slopes often require quick, accurate decisions.

The use of bottled oxygen to ascend Mount Everest has been controversial. George Mallory himself described the use of such oxygen as unsportsmanlike, but he later concluded that it would be impossible to summit without it and consequently used it.[58] When Tenzing and Hillary made the first successful summit in 1953, they used bottled oxygen. For the next twenty-five years, bottled oxygen was considered standard for any successful summit.

Reinhold Messner was the first climber to break the bottled oxygen tradition and in 1978, with Peter Habeler, made the first successful climb without it. Although critics alleged that he sucked mini-bottles of oxygen - a claim that Messner denied - Messner silenced them when he summited the mountain solo, without supplemental oxygen or any porters or climbing partners, on the more difficult northwest route, in 1980.

The aftermath of the 1996 disaster further intensified the debate. Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air (1997) expressed the author's personal criticisms of the use of bottled oxygen. Krakauer wrote that the use of bottled oxygen allowed otherwise unqualified climbers to attempt to summit, leading to dangerous situations and more deaths. The 11 May 1996 disaster was partially caused by the sheer number of climbers (34 on that day) attempting to ascend, causing bottlenecks at the Hillary Step and delaying many climbers, most of whom summited after the usual 2 p.m. turnaround time. He proposed banning bottled oxygen except for emergency cases, arguing that this would both decrease the growing pollution on Everest—many bottles have accumulated on its slopes—and keep marginally qualified climbers off the mountain.

The 1996 disaster also introduced the issue of the guide's role in using bottled oxygen.[59] Guide Anatoli Boukreev's decision not to use bottled oxygen was sharply criticized by Jon Krakauer. Boukreev's supporters (who include G. Weston DeWalt, who co-wrote The Climb) state that using bottled oxygen gives a false sense of security.[60] Krakauer and his supporters point out that, without bottled oxygen, Boukreev was unable to directly help his clients descend.[61] They state that Boukreev said that he was going down with client Martin Adams,[61] but just below the South Summit, Boukreev determines that Adams was doing fine on the descent and so descends at a faster pace, leaving Adams behind. Adams states in The Climb: "For me, it was business as usual, Anatoli's going by, and I had no problems with that."[62]


2004 photo mosaic the Himalayas with Makalu and Mount Everest from the International Space Station, Expedition 8.
Thefts and other crimes
Some climbers have reported life-threatening thefts from supply caches. Vitor Negrete, the first Brazilian to climb Everest without oxygen and part of David Sharp's party, died during his descent, and theft from his high-altitude camp may have contributed.[63]

In addition to theft, the 2008 book High Crimes by Michael Kodas describes unethical guides and Sherpas, prostitution and gambling at the Tibet Base Camp, fraud related to the sale of oxygen bottles, and climbers collecting donations under the pretense of removing trash from the mountain.[64]

Flora and fauna
Euophrys omnisuperstes, a minute black jumping spider, has been found at elevations as high as 6,700 metres (22,000 ft), possibly making it the highest confirmed non-microscopic permanent resident on Earth. They lurk in crevices and possibly feed on frozen insects that have been blown there by the wind. It should be noted that there is a high likelihood of microscopic life at even higher altitudes. [65] Birds, such as the bar-headed goose, have been seen flying at the higher altitudes of the mountain, while others such as the Chough have been spotted as high as the South Col (7,920 m),[66] scavenging on food, or even corpses, left by prior climbing expeditions.

Geology

The last rays of sunlight on Mount Everest on 5 May 2007Geologists have subdivided the rocks comprising Mount Everest into three units called "formations".[67][68] Each of these formations are separated from each other by low-angle faults, called “detachments”, along which they have been thrust over each other. From the summit of Mount Everest to its base these rock units are the Qomolangma Formation, the North Col Formation, and the Rongbuk Formation.

From its summit to the top of the Yellow Band, about 8,600 m (28,000 ft) above sea level, the top of Mount Everest consists of the Qomolangma Formation, which has also been designated as either the Everest Formation or Jolmo Lungama Formation. It consists of grayish to dark gray or white, parallel laminated and bedded limestone interlayered with subordinate beds of recrystallized dolomite with argillaceous laminae and siltstone. Gansser first reported finding microscopic fragments of crinoids in these limestones.[69] Later petrographic analysis of samples of this Ordovician limestone from near the summit revealed them to be composed of carbonate pellets and finely fragmented remains of trilobites, crinoids, and ostracods. Other samples were so badly sheared and recrystallized that their original constituents could not be determined. The Qomolangma Formation is broken up by several high-angle faults that terminate at the low angle thrust fault, the Qomolangma Detachment. This detachment separates it from the underlying Yellow Band. The lower five metres of the Qomolangma Formation overlying this detachment are very highly deformed.[67][68]

The bulk of Mount Everest, between 7,000 and 8,600 m (23,000 and 28,200 ft), consists of the North Col Formation, of which the Yellow Band forms its upper part between 8,200 to 8,600 m (26,900 to 28,200 ft). The Yellow Band consists of intercalated beds of diopsite-epidote-bearing marble, which weathers a distinctive yellowish brown, and muscovite-biotite phyllite and semischist. Petrographic analysis of marble collected from about 8,300 m (27,200 ft) found it to consist as much as five percent of the ghosts of recrystallized crinoid ossicles. The upper five metres of the Yellow Band lying adjacent to the Qomolangma Detachment is badly deformed. A 5–40 cm (2–16 in) thick fault breccia separates it from the overlying Qomolangma Formation.[67][68]

The remainder of the North Col Formation, exposed between 7,000 to 8,200 m (23,000 to 26,900 ft) on Mount Everest, consists of interlayered and deformed schist, phyllite, and minor marble. Between 7,600 and 8,200 m (24,900 and 26,900 ft), the North Col Formation consists chiefly of biotite-quartz phyllite and chlorite-biotite phyllite intercalated with minor amounts of biotite-sericite-quartz schist. Between 7,000 and 7,600 m (23,000 and 24,900 ft), the lower part of the North Col Formation consists of biotite-quartz schist intercalated with epidote-quartz schist, biotite-calcite-quartz schist, and thin layers of quartzose marble. These metamorphic rocks appear to the result of the metamorphism of deep sea flysch composed of interbedded, mudstone, shale, clayey sandstone, calcareous sandstone, graywacke, and sandy limestone. The base of the North Col Formation is a regional thrust fault called the "Lhotse detachment".[67][68]

Below 7,000 m (23,000 ft), the Rongbuk Formation underlies the North Col Formation and forms the base of Mount Everest. It consists of sillminite-K-feldspar grade schist and gneiss intruded by numerous sills and dikes of leucogranite ranging in thickness from 1 cm to 1,500 m (0.4 in to 4,900 ft).[68][70]

See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mount Everest
Everest Base Camp
Geology of the Himalaya
Kangshung Face, Mount Everest
List of deaths on eight-thousanders
North Col
South Col
Rongbuk Glacier
Rongbuk Monastery
Sagarmatha National Park
Bibliography
American Alpine Journal 2005, p. 393.
Irving, R. L. G., Ten Great Mountains (London, J. M. Dent & Sons, 1940)[71]
References
^ Based on elevation of snow cap, not rock head. For more details, see Measurement.
^ The position of the summit of Everest on the international border is clearly shown on detailed topographic mapping, including official Nepalese mapping.
^ The WGS84 coordinates given here were calculated using detailed topographic mapping and are in agreement with adventurestats. They are unlikely to be in error by more than 2". Coordinates showing Everest to be more than a minute further east that appeared on this page until recently, and still appear in Wikipedia in several other languages, are incorrect.
^ Full list of all ascents of Everest up to and including 2008 (in pdf format)
^ "National Geographic Adventure Magazine: Ask Adventure--Tips". National Geographic Society. May 2005. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0305/expert_everest.html. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
^ Haywood, Ben. "Ethics of Everest". The Age Education. http://www.education.theage.com.au/pagedetail.asp?intpageid=1652&strsection=students&intsectionid=0. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
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^ "The man who 'discovered' Everest". BBC News. 2003-10-20. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3193576.stm. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
^ Letters to the Editor, The American Statistician, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Feb., 1982), pp. 64-67 JSTOR
^ (India and China). The Times. Sat, 4 October 1856. Issue 22490, col B, p. 8.
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^ "Roof of the World". National Geographic Society. 1999. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/everest/roof_content.html. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
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^ a b The "base" of a mountain is a problematic notion in general with no universally accepted definition. However for a peak rising out of relatively flat terrain, such as Mauna Kea or Denali, an approximate height above "base" can be calculated. For Everest the situation is more complicated, since it only rises above relatively flat terrain on its north (Tibetan Plateau) side. Hence the concept of "base" has even less meaning for Everest than for Mauna Kea or Denali, and the range of numbers for "height above base" is wider. In general, comparisons based on "height above base" are somewhat suspect.
^ "NOVA Online: Surviving Denali, The Mission". NOVA. Public Broadcasting Corporation. 2000. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/denali/expedition/mission.html. Retrieved 2007-06-07.
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^ Tenzing Norgay and James Ramsey Ullman, Man of Everest (1955, also published as Tiger of the Snows)
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^ Federation Aeronautique Internationale records page. (Search for "Everest" on that page).
^ "French Everest Mystery Chopper's Utopia summit". MountEverest.net. 2005-05-27. http://www.mounteverest.net/story/FrenchEverestMysteryChoppersUtopiasummit-VIDEOMay272005.shtml.
^ "Everest climber defends leaving dying Briton". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2006-05-23. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1645603.htm.
^ "Olympic torch reaches Mount Everest summit". msnbc. 2008-05-08. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24501387/.
^ "The Height of Avarice". The New York Times. 2007-06-26. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/opinion/26kodas.html.
^ Harding, Luke (25 May 2003). "Teenage girl conquers Everest, 50 years on". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/may/25/everest.nepal. Retrieved 17 July 2009.
^ http://www.nowpublic.com/world/17-yr-old-johnny-strange-scales-mt-everest-breaks-world-record
^ "Everest 2008: Marc Batard back for speed record attempt on north side". MountEverest.net. 2008-01-21. http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?id=16931.
^ Associated Press (2008-05-25). "76-year-old breaks Everest record". CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/25/everest.old.ap/index.html. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
^ "Online high altitude oxygen calculator". altitude.org. http://www.altitude.org/calculators/airpressure.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
^ "Everest 2007". Caudwell Xtreme Everest 2007. http://www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/news_detail.php?article=196. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
^ "The deadly business of climbing Everest". The Age. 2006-06-03. http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/the-deadly-business-of-climbing-everest/2006/06/02/1148956544080.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2.
^ "Chamber of Horrors: The Oxygen Mask". MountainZone.com. 1998-05-21. http://classic.mountainzone.com/everest/98/climb5-21oxygen.html. Retrieved 2007-04-01.
^ "Lost on Everest: The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine '24". NOVA Online. PBS. 2000. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/lost/mystery/. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
^ The debate between G. Weston DeWalt and Jon Krakauer on bottled oxygen and Boukreev's actions can be found in the Salon debates
^ "On top of the world - Acclimatisation". GlaxoSmithKline. http://www.gsk.com/people/mogens/acclimatisation.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
^ a b Coming Down page 3 DWIGHT GARNER salon.com 1998 August
^ Boukreev, Anatoli; DeWalt, Weston (1998). The Climb. St. Martins Paperbacks. pp. 182. ISBN 0-312-96533-8.
^ Mounteverest.net article. See also second article.
^ Go Sell It on the Mountain, Mother Jones, 1 February 2008
^ Wanless, F.R. (1975). Spiders of the family Salticidae from the upper slopes of Everest and Makalu. British Arachnological Society. http://www.britishspiders.org.uk/. Retrieved 2008-03-21.
^ The Ascent of Everest by John Hunt (Hodder & Stoughton, 1953). In chapter 14, Hunt describes seeing a Chough on the South Col; meanwhile Charles Evans saw some unidentified birds fly over the Col.
^ a b c d Yin, C.-H. and Kuo, S.-T. 1978: "Stratigraphy of the Mount Jolmo Lungma and its north slope." Scientia Sinica. v. 5, pp. 630-644
^ a b c d e Sakai, H., M. Sawada,Y. Takigami, Y. Orihashi, T. Danhara, H. Iwano, Y. Kuwahara, Q. Dong, H. Cai, and J. Li. 2005. "Geology of the summit limestone of Mount Qomolangma (Everest) and cooling history of the Yellow Band under the Qomolangma detachment." Island Arc. v. 14 no. 4 pp. 297-310.
^ Gansser, A.1964.Geology of the Himalayas, John Wiley Interscience, London, 1964 289 pp.
^ Searle, M. P. 1999. Emplacement of Himalayan leucogranites by magma injection along giant sill complexes: examples from the Cho Oyu, Gyachung Kang and Everest leucogranites (Nepal Himalaya). Journal of Asian Earth Sciences. v. 17, no. 5-6, pp. 773-783.
^ The climbing history up to 1939 of Snowdon, Ben Nevis, Ushba, Mount Logan, Everest, Nanga Parbat, Kanchenjunga, the Matterhorn, Mount Cook and Mont Blanc.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mount Everest
National Geographic site on Mt. Everest
NOVA site on Mt. Everest
Royal Geographical Society site on Mt. Everest
Mount Everest panorama, Mount Everest interactive panorama (Quicktime format), Virtual panoramas *North *South
Interactive climb of Everest from Discovery Channel
Mount Everest on Summitpost
Full list of all ascents of Everest up to and including 2008 (in pdf format)
Summits and deaths per year
The Everest Trek guidebook



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k2

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This article is about the South Asian mountain. For the mountain in Alberta, see Mount K2. For other uses, see K2 (disambiguation).
K2

K2 in summer: view of the South Face from Concordia. The upper portion of the Abruzzi Spur is the right skyline.

K2Location on Pakistan/China border
Elevation 8,611 metres (28,251 ft)
Ranked 2nd (1st in Pakistan)
Location Gilgit-Baltistan
Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, China
Range Karakoram
Prominence 4,017 m (13,179 ft) Ranked 22nd
Coordinates 35°52′57″N 76°30′48″E / 35.8825°N 76.51333°E / 35.8825; 76.51333Coordinates: 35°52′57″N 76°30′48″E / 35.8825°N 76.51333°E / 35.8825; 76.51333
First ascent July 31, 1954
Achille Compagnoni
Lino Lacedelli
Easiest route rock/snow/ice climb
Listing Eight-thousander
Seven Second Summits
Country high point
Ultra


K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth (after Mount Everest). With a peak elevation of 8,611 metres (28,251 ft), K2 is part of the Karakoram range, and is located on the border[1] between the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China and Gilgit, in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan.[2]

K2 is known as the Savage Mountain due to the difficulty of ascent and the 2nd highest fatality rate among the 'eight thousanders' for those who climb it. For every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying.[3] Unlike Annapurna, the mountain with the highest fatality rate, K2 has never been climbed in winter.

Contents [hide]
1 Name
2 Climbing history
2.1 Early attempts
2.2 Success and repeats
2.3 Recent attempts
2.4 The use of bottled oxygen
2.5 Women climbers
3 Climbing routes and difficulties
3.1 Abruzzi Spur
3.2 North Ridge
3.3 Other routes
4 Topographic characteristics
5 In the media
5.1 Books
5.2 Films
5.3 CDs
6 See also
7 References and notes
8 External links


Name

Montgomerie's original sketch in which he applied the notation K2The name K2 is derived from the notation used by the Great Trigonometric Survey. Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram from Mount Haramukh, some 130 miles (210 km) to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labelling them K1 and K2.[4]

The policy of the Great Trigonometric Survey was to use local names for mountains wherever possible[5] and K1 was found to be known locally as Masherbrum. K2, however, appeared not to have acquired a local name, possibly due to its remoteness. The mountain is not visible from Askole, the last village to the south, or from the nearest habitation to the north, and is only fleetingly glimpsed from the end of the Baltoro Glacier, beyond which few local people would have ventured.[6] The name Chogori, derived from two Balti words, chhogo ('big') and ri ('mountain') (شاہگوری) has been suggested as a local name, but evidence for its widespread use is scant. It may have been a compound name invented by Western explorers[7] or simply a bemused reply to the question "What's that called?"[6] It does, however, form the basis for the name Qogir (simplified Chinese: 乔戈里峰; traditional Chinese: 喬戈里峰; pinyin: Qiáogēlǐ Fēng) by which Chinese authorities officially refer to the peak. Other local names have been suggested including Lamba Pahar ("Tall Mountain" in Urdu) and Dapsang, but are not widely used.[6]

Lacking a local name, the name Mount Godwin-Austen was suggested, in honour of Henry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer of the area, and while the name was rejected by the Royal Geographical Society[6] it was used on several maps, and continues to be used occasionally.[8][9]

The surveyor's mark, K2, therefore continues to be the name by which the mountain is commonly known. It is now also used in the Balti language, rendered as Kechu or Ketu[7][10] (Urdu: کے ٹو). The Italian climber Fosco Maraini argued in his account of the ascent of Gasherbrum IV that while the name of K2 owes its origin to chance, its clipped, impersonal nature is highly appropriate for so remote and challenging a mountain. He concluded that it was...

"...just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss. It makes no attempt to sound human. It is atoms and stars. It has the nakedness of the world before the first man - or of the cindered planet after the last."[11]

Climbing history
Early attempts

The west face of K2 taken from the Savoia Glacier on the 1909 expeditionThe mountain was first surveyed by a European survey team in 1856. Thomas Montgomerie was the member of the team who designated it "K2" for being the second peak of the Karakoram range. The other peaks were originally named K1, K3, K4 and K5, but were eventually renamed Masherbrum, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I respectively. In 1892, Martin Conway led a British expedition that reached 'Concordia' on the Baltoro Glacier.[12]

The first serious attempt to climb K2 was undertaken in 1902 by Oscar Eckenstein and Aleister Crowley, via the Northeast Ridge. After five serious and costly attempts, the team could only reach up to 6,525 metres (21,407 ft).[13] The failures are attributed to a combination of questionable physical training, personality conflicts, and poor weather conditions — of 68 days spent on K2 (at the time, the record for the longest time spent at such an altitude) only eight provided clear weather.[14]

The next expedition to K2 in 1909, led by Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, reached an elevation of around 6,250 metres (20,505 ft) on the South East Spur, now known as the Abruzzi Spur (or Abruzzi Ridge). This would eventually become part of the standard route, but was abandoned at the time due to its steepness and difficulty. After trying and failing to find a feasible alternative route on the West Ridge or the North East Ridge, the Duke declared that K2 would never be climbed, and the team switched its attention to Chogolisa, where the Duke came within 150 metres (492 ft) of the summit before being driven back by a storm.[15]


K2 from the east, photographed during the 1909 expeditionThe next attempt on K2 was not made until 1938, when an American expedition led by Charles Houston made a reconnaissance of the mountain. They concluded that the Abruzzi Spur was the most practical route, and reached a height of around 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) before turning back due to diminishing supplies and the threat of bad weather.[16][17] The following year an expedition led by Fritz Wiessner came within 200 metres (656 ft) of the summit, but ended in disaster when four climbers disappeared high on the mountain.[18][19]

Charles Houston returned to K2 to lead the 1953 American expedition. The expedition failed due to a storm which pinned the team down for ten days at 7,800 metres (25,591 ft), during which time Art Gilkey became critically ill. A desperate retreat followed, during which Pete Schoening saved almost the entire team during a mass fall, and Gilkey was killed, either in an avalanche or in a deliberate attempt to avoid burdening his companions. In spite of the failure and tragedy, the courage shown by the team has given the expedition iconic status in mountaineering history.[20][21][22]

Success and repeats
An Italian expedition finally succeeded in ascending to the summit of K2 on July 31, 1954. The expedition was led by Ardito Desio, although the two climbers who actually reached the top were Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. The team included a Pakistani member, Colonel Muhammad Ata-ullah, who had been a part of the 1953 American expedition. Also on the expedition were the famous Italian climber Walter Bonatti and Pakistani Hunza porter Mahdi, who proved vital to the expedition's success in that they carried oxygen to 26,600 feet (8,100 m) for Lacedelli and Compagnoni. Their dramatic bivouac in the open at that altitude wrote another chapter in the saga of Himalayan climbing.

On August 9, 1977, 23 years after the Italian expedition, Ichiro Yoshizawa led the second successful ascent to the top; with Ashraf Aman as the first native Pakistani climber. The Japanese expedition ascended through the Abruzzi Spur route traced by the Italians, and used more than 1,500 porters to achieve the goal.


The West Face and upper slopes of K2The year 1978 saw the third ascent of K2, via a new route, the long, corniced Northeast Ridge. (The top of the route traversed left across the East Face to avoid a vertical headwall and joined the uppermost part of the Abruzzi route.) This ascent was made by an American team, led by noted mountaineer James Whittaker; the summit party were Louis Reichardt, Jim Wickwire, John Roskelley, and Rick Ridgeway. Wickwire endured an overnight bivouac about 150 metres (492 ft) below the summit, one of the highest bivouacs in climbing history. This ascent was emotional for the American team, as they saw themselves as completing a task that had been begun by the 1938 team forty years earlier.[23]

Another notable Japanese ascent was that of the difficult North Ridge, on the Chinese side of the peak, in 1982. A team from the Mountaineering Association of Japan led by Isao Shinkai and Masatsugo Konishi put three members, Naoe Sakashita, Hiroshi Yoshino, and Yukihiro Yanagisawa, on the summit on August 14. However Yanagisawa fell and died on the descent. Four other members of the team achieved the summit the next day.[24]

The first climber to summit K2 twice was a Czech climber Josef Rakoncaj. Rakoncaj was a member of the 1983 Italian expedition led by Francesco Santon, which made the second successful ascent of the North Ridge (July 31 , 1983). Three years later, on July 5, 1986, he summitted on the Abruzzi Spur (double with Broad Peak West Face solo) as a member of Agostino da Polenza's international expedition.

Recent attempts
The peak has now been climbed by almost all of its ridges. Although the summit of Everest is at a higher altitude, K2 is a much more difficult and dangerous climb,[citation needed] due in part to its terrible weather and comparatively greater height above surrounding terrain. The mountain is believed by many[who?] to be the world's most difficult and dangerous climb, hence its nickname "the Savage Mountain." As of August 2008, only 299 people have completed the ascent,[25] compared with about 2,600 individuals who have ascended the more popular target of Everest. At least 77 people have died attempting the climb. Notably, 13 climbers from several expeditions died in 1986 in the 1986 K2 Disaster, five of these in a severe storm. More recently, on August 1, 2008, a group of climbers went missing after a large piece of ice fell during an avalanche taking out the fixed ropes on part of the route; four climbers were rescued, but 11, including Gerard McDonnell, the first Irish person to reach the summit, were confirmed dead.[26]

The use of bottled oxygen
For most of its climbing history, K2 was not usually climbed with bottled oxygen, and small, relatively lightweight teams were the norm.[27][28] However the 2004 season saw a great increase in the use of oxygen: 28 of 47 summiteers used oxygen in that year.[29]

Acclimatisation is essential when climbing without oxygen to avoid some degree of altitude sickness.[30] K2's summit is well above the altitude at which high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) can occur.[31]

Women climbers

K2 from the southeast, photographed in 1909. The left hand skyline is the Southwest Pillar, the right hand skyline is the upper section of the Northeast RidgeThe first woman to reach the summit was Wanda Rutkiewicz, of Poland, in 1986.[32] The next four women to reach the summit were all killed in climbing incidents — three of them died descending from K2 itself, among them fêted British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves in 1995,[32] and Rutkiewicz herself died on Kangchenjunga in 1992.[32] This led to the legend that K2 carried a "curse on women".[33][34] However, the "curse" was broken in 2004 when Edurne Pasaban summitted and descended successfully, and again in 2006 when Nives Meroi of Italy and Yuka Komatsu of Japan became, respectively, the seventh and eighth women to summit K2, both descending successfully. After Eun-Sun Oh in 2007, Cecilie Skog became the tenth woman to have summitted successfully (on 1 August 2008) but her husband, Rolf Bae, who was climbing with her, died during the descent along with 10 other climbers in the 2008 climbing accident.[35] In addition, Mi-Sun Go became the eleventh woman to have summitted, also on 1 August 2008.

Climbing routes and difficulties
There are a number of routes on K2, of somewhat different character, but they all share some key difficulties. First, of course, is the extreme high altitude and resulting lack of oxygen: there is only one-third as much oxygen available to a climber on the summit of K2 as there is at sea level.[36] Second is the propensity of the mountain to experience extreme storms of several days' duration, which have resulted in many of the deaths on the peak. Third is the steep, exposed, and committing nature of all routes on the mountain, which makes retreat more difficult, especially during a storm. Despite many tries there has been no successful ascent during the winter. All major climbing routes lie on the Pakistani side, which is also where the base camp is located.

Abruzzi Spur

Carl Drew climbing ladders on Abruzzi SpurThe standard route of ascent, used far more than any other route, is the Abruzzi Spur,[27][28] located on the Pakistani side, first attempted by Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi in 1909. This is the southeast ridge of the peak, rising above the Godwin Austen Glacier. The spur proper begins at an altitude of 5,400 m/18,000 ft), where Advanced Base Camp is usually placed. The route follows an alternating series of rock ribs, snow/ice fields, and some technical rock climbing on two famous features, "House's Chimney" and the "Black Pyramid." Above the Black Pyramid, dangerously exposed and difficult to navigate slopes lead to the easily visible "Shoulder," and thence to the summit. The last major obstacle is a narrow couloir known as the "Bottleneck," which places climbers dangerously close to a wall of seracs which form an ice cliff to the east of the summit. It was partly due to the collapse of one of these seracs around 2001 that no climbers summitted the peak in 2002 and 2003.[29]

On August 1, 2008, a number of climbers went missing when a serac in the Bottleneck snapped and broke their ropes.[26][37] Survivors were seen from a helicopter but rescue efforts were impeded by the high altitude. Eleven were never found, and presumed dead.[26]

North Ridge

The north side of K2. The North Ridge is in the centre of the picture.Almost opposite from the Abruzzi Spur is the North Ridge,[27][28] which ascends the Chinese side of the peak. It is rarely climbed, partly due to very difficult access, involving crossing the Shaksgam River, which is a hazardous undertaking.[38] In contrast to the crowds of climbers and trekkers at the Abruzzi basecamp, usually at most two teams are encamped below the North Ridge. This route, more technically difficult than the Abruzzi, ascends a long, steep, primarily rock ridge to high on the mountain (Camp IV, the "Eagle's Nest", 7,900 m/26,000 ft), and then crosses a dangerously slide-prone hanging glacier by a leftward climbing traverse, to reach a snow couloir which accesses the summit.

Besides the original Japanese ascent, a notable ascent of the North Ridge was the one in 1990 by Greg Child, Greg Mortimer, and Steve Swenson, which was done alpine style above Camp 2, though using some fixed ropes already put in place by a Japanese team.[38]

Other routes

The major routes to have been climbed on the south side of the mountain. A:West Ridge B:West Face C:Southwest Pillar D:South Face E:South-southeast Spur F: Abruzzi SpurNortheast Ridge (long and corniced; finishes on uppermost part of Abruzzi route), 1978.
West Ridge, 1981.
Southwest Pillar or "Magic Line", very technical, and second most demanding. First climbed in 1986 by the Polish-Slovak trio Piasecki-Wróż-Božik. Since then the Catalan Jordi Corominas was the only successful climber on this route, despite many other attempts.
South Face or "Polish Line" (extremely exposed and most dangerous). In 1986, Jerzy Kukuczka and Tadeusz Piotrowski summitted on this route. Reinhold Messner called it a suicidal route and no one has repeated their achievement. "The route is so avalanche-prone, that no one else has ever considered a new attempt."[39]
Northwest Face, 1990.
Northwest Ridge (finishing on North Ridge). First ascent in 1991.
South-southeast spur or "Cesen route" (finishing on Abruzzi route. A possibly safer alternative to the Abruzzi Spur because of avoiding the first big obstacle on Abruzzi called Black Pyramid ), 1994.
West Face (technically difficult at high altitude), done by a Russian team in 2007 Official site.
Topographic characteristics
K2 is only ranked 22nd by topographic prominence, a measure of a mountain's independent stature, because it is part of the same extended area of uplift (including the Karakoram, the Tibetan Plateau, and the Himalaya) as Mount Everest, in that it is possible to follow a path from K2 to Everest that goes no lower than 4,594 m (15,070 ft) (at Mustang Lo). Many other peaks which are far lower than K2 are more independent in this sense.

However, K2 is notable for its local relief as well as its total height. It stands over 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) above much of the glacial valley bottoms at its base. More extraordinary is the fact that it is a consistently steep pyramid, dropping quickly in almost all directions. The north side is the steepest: there it rises over 3,200 metres (10,499 ft) above the K2 (Qogir) Glacier in only 3,000 metres (9,843 ft) of horizontal distance. In most directions, it achieves over 2,800 metres (9,186 ft) of vertical relief in less than 4,000 metres (13,123 ft).[40]

In the media
Books
Ascent of K2 Second Highest Peak in the World by Ardito Desio. 1955
In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods by Galen Rowell (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1977) ISBN 0-87156-184-0
K2, Mountain of Mountains by Reinhold Messner and A. Gogna, ISBN 0195202538. 1982
K2, Triumph and Tragedy by Jim Curran, ISBN 0-395-48590-8. 1987
The Endless Knot: K2, Mountain of Dreams and Destiny by Kurt Diemberger, ISBN 0-89886-300-7. 1991
K2. Challenging the sky by Roberto Mantovani and Kurt Diemberger. Smithmark Publishers, New York 1995, ISBN 0-8317-1072-1, 144 pages, album 36 x 25 cm format, history, map, routes depicted on photographs (2nd edition: The Mountaineers, Seattle 1997, ISBN 0-89886-518-2 etc., 3rd edition: 2004 — 1st edition was in Italian, White Star S.r.l., Vercelli 1995)
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer ISBN 0-385-48818-1. 1997
The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2 by Rick Ridgeway, ISBN 0-89886-632-4. 1999
K2, The Story of the Savage Mountain by Jim Curran, ISBN 0-89886-683-9. 2000
K2, The Savage Mountain by Charles Houston & Robert H. Bates (McGraw Hill, New York, 1954) ISBN 1-885283-01-6. 2000
The Mountains of My Life by Walter Bonatti, ISBN 0-375-75640-X. 2001
K2, Quest of the Gods: The Great Pyramid in the Himalaya by Ralph Ellis, ISBN 0-932813-99-2. 2001
K2: One Woman's Quest for the Summit by Heidi Howkins, ISBN 0-7922-7996-4. 2001 (Paperback by National Geographic Society, ISBN 978-0792264248, 2002)
K2 Kahani by Mustansar Hussain Tarrad, in Urdu. ISBN 9693505239. 2002
Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2 by Jennifer Jordan, ISBN 0-06-058715-6. 2005
Zvezdnate noči (Starry Nights) by Dušan Jelinčič, EAN / ISBN 961-6387-75-8. 2006
No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World's 14 Highest Peaks by Ed Viesturs. ISBN 0767924711. 2007
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time. by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. ISBN 9780143038252. 2007
Films
Vertical Limit, 2000
K2, 1992
Karakoram & Himalayas, 2007
CDs
In 1988, the British rock musician Don Airey released the album K2 (Tales of Triumph and Tragedy) (feat. Gary Moore and Colin Blunstone), which was dedicated to the 13 K2-victims in 1986.
Hans Zimmer created a score for the movie K2. This score was unused in the film: the soundtrack was released separately in 1992 as K2: Music Inspired By The Film
See also
Pakistan portal
1986 K2 disaster
2008 K2 disaster
Concordia
Gilgit-Baltistan
List of mountains in Pakistan
List of the highest mountains in the world
List of peaks by prominence
List of deaths on eight-thousanders
Hassan sadpara
References and notes
^ Text of border agreement between China and PakistanPDF (253 KiB)
^ K2 – Brittanica.com
^ K2 list of ascents and fatalities
^ Curran, Jim (1995). K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 25. ISBN 978-0340660072.
^ The most obvious exception to this policy was Mount Everest, where the local name Chomolungma was probably known, but ignored in order to pay tribute to George Everest. See Curran, p. 29-30.
^ a b c d Curran, p. 30
^ a b H. Adams Carter, "A Note on the Chinese Name for K2, 'Qogir'", American Alpine Journal, 1983, p. 296. Carter, the long-time editor of the AAJ, goes on to say that the name Chogori "has no local usage. The mountain was not prominently visible from places where local inhabitants ventured and so had no local name.... The Baltis use no other name for the peak than K2, which they pronounce 'Ketu'. I strongly recommend against the use of the name Chogori in any of its forms."
^ CIA Fact Book, Pakistan
^ H. Adams Carter, "Balti Place Names in the Karakoram", American Alpine Journal, 1975, p. 52–53. Carter notes that "Godwin Austen is the name of the glacier at its eastern foot and is only incorrectly used on some maps as the name of the mountain."
^ Carter, op cit. Carter notes a generalisation of the word Ketu: "A new word, ketu, meaning 'big peak', seems to be entering the Balti language."
^ Maraini, Fosco (1961). Karakoram: the ascent of Gasherbrum IV. Hutchinson. Quoted in Curran , p. 31.
^ Charles S. Houston (1953) K2, the Savage Mountain. McGraw-Hill.
^ A timeline of human activity on K2
^ Booth, Martin (2001) [2000]. "Rhythms of Rapture" (trade paperback). A Magick Life: A Biography of Aleister Crowley (Coronet ed.). London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 152–157. ISBN 0-340-71806-4.
^ Curran, Jim (1995). K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. 65–72. ISBN 978-0340660072.
^ Houston, Charles S (1939). Five Miles High. Dodd, Mead. ISBN 978-1585740512. Reprinted (2000) by First Lyon Press with introduction by Jim Wickwire
^ Curran, pp.73-80
^ Kaufman, Andrew J. (1992). K2: The 1939 Tragedy. Mountaineers Books. ISBN 978-0898863239.
^ Curran pp.81-94
^ Houston, Charles S (1954). K2 - The Savage Mountain. Mc-Graw-Hill Book Company Inc. ISBN 978-1585740130. Reprinted (2000) by First Lyon Press with introduction by Jim Wickwire
^ McDonald, Bernadette (2007). Brotherhood of the Rope - The Biography of Charles Houston. The Mountaineers Books. pp. pp119–140. ISBN 978-0898869422.
^ Curran, Jim (1995). K2: The Story of the Savage Mountain. Hodder & Stoughton. pp. pp95–103. ISBN 978-0340660072.
^ American Alpine Journal, 1979, pp. 1–18
^ American Alpine Journal, 1983, p. 295
^ "Climber Lists: Everest, K2 and other 8000ers". http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/climbers.html.
^ a b c "Climber: 11 killed after avalanche on Pakistan's K2". http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/03/pakistan.climbers/index.html.
^ a b c Andy Fanshawe and Stephen Venables, Himalaya Alpine-Style, Hodder and Stoughton, 1995, ISBN 0-340-64931-3
^ a b c Audrey Salkeld, editor, World Mountaineering, Bulfinch Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8212-2502-2
^ a b American Alpine Journal, 2005, p. 351–353
^ Muza, SR; Fulco, CS; Cymerman, A (2004). "Altitude Acclimatisation Guide.". US Army Research Inst. of Environmental Medicine Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division Technical Report (USARIEM-TN-04-05). http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/7616. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
^ Cymerman, A; Rock, PB. Medical Problems in High Mountain Environments. A Handbook for Medical Officers. USARIEM-TN94-2. US Army Research Inst. of Environmental Medicine Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division Technical Report. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/7976. Retrieved 2009-03-05.
^ a b c Jordan, J. (2006) Savage Summit: the life and death of the first women who climbed K2. New York: Harper. ISBN 0060587164
^ Jordan, Jennifer (2005). Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women who Climbed K2, the World's Most Feared Mountain. HarperCollins. pp. 177. ISBN 0060587156, 9780060587154.
^ "Curse of the women of K2". news24.com. 2004-07-28. http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1564117,00.html. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
^ Climbers killed on K2
^ Altitude oxygen calculator online
^ "Nine feared dead in K2 avalanche". BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7539543.stm. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
^ a b American Alpine Journal, 1991, pp. 19–32
^ R. Messner and A. Gogna [1981] (1982) K2 Mountain of Mountains. Translated from German by A. Salked. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195202538
^ Jerzy Wala, The Eight-Thousand-Metre Peaks of the Karakoram, Orographical Sketch Map, The Climbing Company Ltd/Cordee, 1994.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: K2
Blankonthemap The Northern Kashmir WebSite
How high is K2 really? – Measurements in 1996 gave 8614.27±0.6 m a.m.s.l
K2climb.net
CNR meteo station
The Mountain Areas Conservancy Project
The climbing history of K2 from the first attempt in 1902 until the Italian success in 1954.
China Peak Exploration Team to challenge Mt. Qogir
Outside Online: The K2 Tragedy
K2: Daring to Dream Documentary
Sample of K2 poster product including Routes and NotesPDF (235 KiB) From Everest-K2 Posters
Northern Pakistan - highly detailed placemarks of towns, villages, peaks, glaciers, rivers and minor tributaries in Google Earth
K2 on SummitPost.Org
K2 on Encyclopedia Britannica
Map of K2
List of ascents to December 2007 (in pdf format)
'K2: The Killing Peak' Men's Journal November 2008 Feature
Achille Compagnoni - Daily Telegraph obituary
Dr Charles Houston - Daily Telegraph obituary
[show]v • d • eEight-thousanders

Everest · K2 · Kangchenjunga · Lhotse · Makalu · Cho Oyu · Dhaulagiri · Manaslu · Nanga Parbat · Annapurna · Gasherbrum I · Broad Peak · Gasherbrum II · Shishapangma

[show]v • d • eSeven Second Summits

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Categories: Mountains of China | Mountains of Pakistan | Eight-thousanders | Karakoram | K2 | Borders of China | Borders of Pakistan
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