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The Dream

Every year, Everest draws attention from the entire world. Climbers scale the worlds tallest mountain virtually before an audience of millions, those following the quests on their home computers.

As Everest close down, some time around the end of May, another drama unfolds. This is the Karakorum season opening in Pakistan and China. Usually far from the eyes of the international media, the worlds foremost climbers assemble here in June and July, to climb the worlds toughest alpine peaks. The crown of those is named K2.

Dubbed the "Savage Mountain," K2 in the Himalayas is Earth’s second-highest peak and arguably the hardest climb in the world. With a 8,611-meter (28,250-foot) summit, routes that are steeper and more difficult than those to the top of Everest, and surrounding weather that is significantly colder and less predictable than on Everest, reaching the top of K2 is the equivalent of winning the Olympic gold in mountaineering.

It was first summitted in 1954 by two Italians: Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. Since then, there have been 189 summits (compared with approximately 1400 on Everest). Forty nine climbers have died on K2, twenty-two while descending from the summit. In terms of the number of accidents that happen on the descent, it is the most deadly mountain in the world. The statistics for female climbers are particularly dramatic. Some even say K2 is "cursed" for women. Five women have reached the top, but of those 5, three died on the descent. (The other 2 have since died on other 8,000-meter peaks.)

Situated in the middle of an isolated paradise, it is thought to be part of the fictional Shangri-La that James Hilton wrote about in Lost Horizon. This remoteness adds to the beauty, but it also increases the danger. If anything goes wrong on the mountain - even at Base Camp - it is almost impossible to be evacuated by helicopter. On the north side of the mountain, climbers are stranded for six weeks during the peak of the season, when the rivers in the Shaksgam Valley flood and cannot be crossed by the camels who accompany teams on the journey in.

In spite of the dangers, the mountain continues to lure climbers to it´s slopes of dark gray rock. It is the ultimate fear and as such must be faced and overcome by climbers aiming for alpine excellence. In scaling Everest, you are a great climber to the world. Summit K2, and you are a true climber to climbers.

K2 is the jealous king to Sagarmatha (Everest) the Mother Goddess. It is an unforgiving, handsome and mighty mountain. If the Kings crown is what you came for, be prepared to risk it all.


Point Zero

K2 should not be your first 8000er. In order to have a fair chance of success and survival, you need prior practice. For Everest, good starts are Cho Oyu, Lhotse, Shisapagma, Aconcagua, MountMcKinley or GII.

For K2, a great experience is gained at Everest, Makalu, Manaslu, Gasherbrum 1, Broad Peak and the likes.

Most accomplished climbers leave K2 in the end line of their climbs of the other Himalayan giants.

K2 will require a great deal of self-reliance, altitude experience, rope- and climbing skills as well as managerial competence to lead and organize alpine expeditions.

Some of the peaks in Karakorum are well crowded, frequented by commercial expeditions. There are no commercial expeditions at K2; except for loosely knitted permit-sharing expeditions consisting of climbers mostly doing their own thing.

If you are a novice to climbing, read up on the basics at MountEverest.net Point Zero. There you will learn about becoming a climber, getting in shape and raising the funds. Getting ready for Everest requires around 2-3 years of diligent climbing. The equivalent should have you ready for K2 in about 3-5 years starting at armchair level.

You have the time however. Age is no problem in the mountains. Most ace climbers are in their 40s and 50s, this figure changing upwards every year.

For a comparison on physical best
before age:

In New York, a nun - "Sister Madonna" - finished a Triathlon competition last weekend (summer 2001). Sister Madonna is 73 years old.

Permit & Paperwork

On the south side

To climb K2 from the Pakistani side, it is necessary to apply for permission from the Ministry of Tourism in Islamabad. The peak fee for south side expeditions is 12,000 USD for a team of up to 7 climbers, and 2,000 USD for each additional climber. For 2003 & 2004 the royalty has been decreased by 50% to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Nanga Parbat & K2. It means for this year the royalty for K2 is 6000 USD for 7 climbers & 1000 USD for each additional climber.

Likewise, royalty for Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak, and Gasherbrum II is 9000 USD for a team of 7 and 1500 USD for each additional climber. For 2003 & 2004 the same 50% discount is available for these peaks. With the discount it comes to 4500 USD for 7 climbers & 750 USD for each additional climber. The same discount is valid for all peaks above 6000 meters.

In addition to the peak fee, you will need to put up a 6,000 USD rescue bond (completely refundable if it is not used), and a 200 USD environmental fee. K2 is approximately 50 Km. from Indian boarder so you will be required to travel with a Pakistani Army "Liaison Officer" (L.O.), and each expedition would provide his allowances & equipment etc. A reasonable budget for a mid-size team (without gear) is 8,000 USD per climber. For simply trekking to Base Camp, a reasonable budget is 3,000 USD per trekker.
Although the Ministry of Tourism can be contacted directly, it is advisable to hire an agent in Islamabad to assist with delivering paperwork to the Ministry, the customs hall, and other agencies.
The first Pakistani climber to climb K2, Ashraf Aman, owns and operates a company called Adventure Tours Pakistan. His contact information is as follows:

Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Mobile: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Web: http://www.atp.com.pk


Remember that the prime climbing season on K2 is June through August. Permits must typically be secured by November (via a 1,000 USD deposit), although some exceptions have been allowed.
The designated Rules from the Ministry can be read here. . .


On the north side

To climb K2 from the Chinese side, it is necessary to apply for permission from the Chinese Mountaineering Association in Beijing. The permit fee is only approximately 1,000 USD per team on this side, but the miscellaneous expenses will add up to much more. Although the total package is negotiable, the Chinese side of K2 is generally about 50% more expensive than the Pakistani side. The email address for Mr. Ying Dao Shui, Vice Secretary-General of the CMA, is [e-mail] (allow 1-2 weeks for response).
Whichever organizer you choose, the same rules apply as for organizing a trip to Everest. You really should keep all the negotiations with the tour operator in writing. Check Permit&Paperwork on the Everest section for a list of details to be discussed closely. When arriving in Pakistan, you need to check all the gear provided (fuel bottles and such) before leaving for the trek, in order not to be up for surprises upon reaching the mountain. You won't need a Letter of Recommendation to attain a climbing permit for K2.

Transportation
The Pakistani side

Unlike many of the other 8,000-meter peaks, K2 is so remote that it is not visible from any inhabited place. The nearest village on the south (Pakistan) side of the mountain is Askole, approximately 6-8 days from Base Camp. The nearest town with medical supplies and a phone is another 8-10 hours (via jeeps which must be prescheduled), so it is advisable to consider bringing a satellite telephone.

The Pakistan side of the mountain is the more frequently visited side, but you can still expect a limited number of climbers - in a "low" season there will be as few as 20, and a "peak" season will see only approximately 40-50. This is due primarily to the difficulty of the mountain.

The trek to BC takes around 8 days and there are no tea houses on the way. You camp out in tents and own cooking is required. The gear is carried by porters, those - as opposite to Everest sherpas - preferring drums to North Face bags or other soft packs. The porters allow 55 lbs each, charging USD 8/day or USD 64/load coming in and out (plus tips 10-20%).


The Chinese side
pproaching K2 from the Chinese side is a huge logistical challenge. From Kashgar, in the "wild west" Xinjiang province of China, there is a 2 day bus ride, followed by a 2 day off-road jeep ride through the Tashkurgan Desert (which, literally translated, means "If you go in, you will not come back") to an oasis called "Ilik" where you rendezvous with the camels who will transport your gear to Base Camp. The 8-day trek with the camels takes you through the prehistoric canyons of the Shaksgam Valley, across rivers which are frequently so deep that you have to ride the camels, to the base of the Qogori (K2) Glacier.


At the base of the glacier, the camels can go no further, but you are still 2,000 feet below and 10 miles away from the base of the mountain. At this point your 3 months of food and climbing gear (often weighing as much as 15,000 pounds) must be extremely well organized so that you know which loads to carry up first. After a week or so of carrying heavy loads on loose scree for 10-12 hours per day, you may have enough gear to start climbing. Many expeditions choose to hire porters from Pakistan to help with ongoing task of carrying equipment from the camel dump to the base of the mountain throughout the season.

As if this month-long approach weren’t challenge enough, there is the added element of seasonal flooding in the Shaksgam Valley. Once the rivers flood in late June, even the camels cannot cross them. It is effectively impossible to trek back out, and helicopter rescue or supply drops are not an option. (Chinese airstrips are too far away, and Pakistani helicopters cannot enter Chinese air space.) Your team will be completely isolated until the rivers recede in early to mid-August.

The Chinese side of the mountain is the less frequently visited side, and there are usually no climbers on this side of the mountain. Historically, teams on this side of the team have either been very large, or loose-knit groups of smaller international teams working together.


General packing
Buy small padlocks for everything. The luggage will be left unattended at times on its way to BC. Pack everything bearing in mind that it will be carried. Tubes with ketchup will get pierced, jam jars will leak, sugar will end up in your underwear change. Keep everything well packed and isolated in plastic bunks if you don’t want to forever remember the climb by the smell of various food products. Potato chips should be Pringles, if not for the taste then for the hard pack. Remember that all the foods and technical gear must withstand extreme temperatures, both hot and cold.

Food & Gear

This section is unanimous for all high altitude peaks and well described on the Everest site.
Check food and climbing gear.




Karakorum specifics:

Islamabad is not a great place for gear hunting. Bring all you can from home.
Snow plates are used for anchors at K2. Bring them with you, they are impossible to find in Pakistan.
Ropes, ropes…Check up on the expeditions in the profiles at "cool expeditions" on this site. Large amount of ropes and anchors are regularly carried for the climbs. Korea/Park brought 4000m/14000ft for K2. You will probably share the task of rope fixing with others, but are best of carrying your own supply anyway.
The One Sport company has been aquired by Millet - boots still looks the same but the brand tag is different.
There are no tea houses on the trek up. Count on food supply to get in and out of the mountain plus bring lots of goodies for the rest periods. You´ll need all the comfort food you can possibly imagine.
On Everest, it is easy to get the occasional fresh bread, veggies and even beer from nearby villages. Forget that on K2. Learn to bake your own bread (chapati style in a pan for instance) and give the food planning ample attention before you leave home. Nothing will be more important to you than good food after some time.
BC will be your home for a long time with small chance to escape down the valleys for R&R. Make your BC tent a comfy home. It should be spacious, bright and relaxing. Bring sound blasters for music, magazines, games, a guitar or all else you can think of to make life on the rocks easier. Large brand dome tents are superior. They are also a fortune (approx USD 5000). Negotiate sponsorship or bring a cheap, strong "camping-style" tent with windows and all.
People

There is a great section on climbing porters at MountEverest.net. The Sherpas are much alike their less famous equivalents in the Karakorums; the Baltis.
Just as the Sherpas of the Khumbu Valley, the Baltis of the Karakorums are much appreciated by the climbers. The porters work with you; sometimes they even die with you. Be good to them and check The Sherpas for guidance.

There is another section on the site describing the climbers. It goes for all altitude climbing so check it out at Fellow climbers. In the Karakorums, there are however some differences that you will encounter.

Fellow climbers at K2

In the Everest Himalayas, it is possible to meet all kinds of climbers. Alpine aces climb side by side of alpine novices as human dreamers crowd to ascent the tallest mountain of them all.
In the Karakorums, the situation is strikingly different. One after the other, climbers emerge from nowhere, attempting their 10th, 11th or last of the Himalayan crown; all the 8000rs of the earth.

A single summit of Everest suddenly seems bleak in the face of climbers counting out Kanchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, Makalu and other giants for the breakfast "chai".
That doesn´t mean that the politics and interactions with fellow climbers differ from the ones on Everest. It is still the same egos, lack of law, good guys and bad guys surviving together against all odds in a volunteer war.
It´s just that the human nature will be tougher in the Karakorums. There will be the resolute Russians, the proud Spaniards, the intrepid Koreans. There will be more risk taken, more honor gained but most of all - countless more climbing tales to be shared in the dark, cold tents.


If you are well liked, you will be offered Russian horsefat from a tube, Mexican honeycomb cookies or Netherland sweet oatbread baked by somebody's mom. There will be the fierce spice paste in a glass jar brought from Kazakstan or even American cheese cake made from the local goat/camel/yak cheese.
You will chat with the most skilled climbers on the planet. Watch treats crumble in the beards of wild men with fiery eyes. Meet women living lives far from the ordinary. You will listen to the sagas of the mountains, tales of bravery whispered out of sleeping bags, hopes and fears shared in all the languages of our world.
With this experience of mutual struggle and glory faced together with strangers, in this place of the most remote coordinates in the world, you will probably find that the summit becomes of lesser importance. Instead, you might discover that we are all the same really, making the human kind just an endless family of brothers and sisters.
Hanging on a steep slope, clinging to the edge of a black rock face in a roaring wind, you will not be able to distinguish friend from enemy on the mountain. You will both be just humans, tied to the same rope, saving each other's lives without a word. That will be the golden crown of K2 that you will carry in your heart for the rest of your life.

Surviving
Dangers

One of the factors that makes K2 so challenging is the sustained technical difficulty. It is sustained often described as a cone of ice and limestone, and has slopes of 45 degree angles or more. Climbers typically fix up to 2,500 meters of rope on the south side routes, and up to 5,000 meters of rope on the north ridge route. Because high-altitude porters are rarely employed, all of the work of carrying and setting the ropes and high camps must be done by the climbers themselves


On Everest, there are typically 2 four or five day weather "windows" during the spring climbing season. Although K2 is almost impossible to climb without being caught in life-threatening weather, the best months to climb are June, July and August. The sudden storms are caused in part because the peak is so much higher than the mountains around it -- it juts up into the upper layers of the atmosphere and like a rock in a river can create eddies in the jet stream, with good weather on one side of the mountain, and life-threatening conditions on the other.

The statistics

There are fourteen "8,000ers" - fourteen mountains above 8,000 meters high that of course represent the 14 highest points on planet Earth. The following list of statistics was provided in February, 2001 by Xavier Eguskitza, the renowned Basque chronicler of Himalayan climbing. Although K2 is listed 3rd in the rank of danger, this is factoring in the total number of deaths.
Mr. Eguskitza points out, "If we consider the number of deaths coming down from the summit, K2 is by far the most dangerous, about 3 times more so than Annapurna. The problem on K2 is that if you reach the top, your chances of returning are significantly reduced."



K2 fatality statistics

Know how to survive

In order to survive K2 you will need luck and skill. You´ll have to know your medicals, the altitude aids and altitude problems.
Read up well, start with the MountEverest.net sections and then practice. There will be limited possibilities for rescue or medical attention on K2.
You´ll have to know how to stitch somebody up, general first aid and all in all how to be entirely self reliable in many life threatening areas in order to save yourself, your porters or fellow climbers. Do your homework, your life might depend on it.
Oxygen

You don’t need the Everest face mask on K2. The Khumbu cough doesn’t exist here. You might however choose to bring oxygen. Although K2 is listed as a "no-oz" mountain, many skilled climbers have summited it using oxygen. Park from Korea is bringing it, Rob Hall used it, if you do too you’ll be in great company.
Get the right bottles from Poisk, along with unused oxygen gear. K2 is only slightly lower than Everest, the climb is hard and the barometric pressure is said to be lower then that of Everest at the base of the mountain. If you feel uncertain about your no-oz abilities, don’t hesitate to bring it and use it.

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Photos

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