K2 or is also called Godwin Austen is the second-highest mountain in the world after mount Everest, height reaches 8.611 meters (28.251 feet). The mountain is located in part of the Karakoram Himalaya of Pakistan and the People's Republic of China, K2 is a national mountain in Pakistan.
This is more difficult mountain to climb than Mount Everest because the weather is bad. K2 is also higher in the surrounding area when compared to Everest. In 2004, only 246 people who managed to climb to the top. At least 56 people died while trying to climb it. K2 is dubbed the "Savage Mountain" as this.
The 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 210 km (130 miles) to the south, and sketched the two most prominent peaks, labelling them K1 and K2.
Of several climb that has been done an Italian expedition finally succeeded in ascending to the summit of K2 via the Abruzzi Spur on 31 July 1954. The expedition was led by Ardito Desio, although the two climbers who actually reached the top were Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni.
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.
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 attempts there have been no successful winter ascents. All major climbing routes lie on the Pakistani side, which is also where the base camp is located.
Routes
- Abruzzi Spur route
- North Ridge route
Other Routes
- Northeast 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. Piotrowski was killed while descending. 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.
- Northwest Face, 1990.
- Northwest Ridge (finishing on North Ridge). First ascent in 1991.
- South-southeast spur or "Cesen route" (finishing on Abruzzi route — possibly safer alternative to the Abruzzi Spur, because it avoids Black Pyramid, the first big obstacle on Abruzzi), 1994.
- West Face, technical difficulty at high altitude, first climbed by Russian team in 2007
source : wikipedia
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