K2

K2 is 8,611 metres high, second only to Everest, and it sits deep in the Karakoram on the line between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and the China-administered Trans-Karakoram Tract of Xinjiang. Its name is a survey label that stuck. In 1856 Thomas Montgomerie of the Great Trigonometrical Survey sketched the two most prominent peaks he could see from Mount Haramukh, some 130 km to the south, and marked them K1 and K2, K for Karakoram. K1 turned out to have a local name, Masherbrum; K2 did not, probably because it is so remote that it cannot even be seen from Askole, the last village on the approach. Balti-derived Chogori and the surveyor's name Godwin-Austen have both been proposed, and neither has displaced the letters.

What makes K2 so formidable is its shape. It is a steep pyramid that falls away sharply in almost every direction, standing more than 3,000 metres above the glacier floors around it; on the north side it rises about 3,200 metres over only 3 km of horizontal distance. Its more northerly position also means that bad weather is more common than on the Himalayan giants. After the American expedition of 1953, climber George Bell called it a savage mountain that tries to kill you, and the nickname Savage Mountain has stayed. Before 2021 roughly one climber died for every four who reached the summit, and on 1–2 August 2008 eleven climbers died in a series of accidents that included icefall in the Bottleneck, the narrow couloir below the summit.

The first ascent was made in 1954 by Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni of an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, by way of the Abruzzi Spur, the southeast ridge first tried by the Duke of the Abruzzi in 1909 and still used by about three-quarters of climbers. K2 was the last of the fourteen 8,000-metre peaks to be climbed in winter: a team of ten Nepali mountaineers led by Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa stood on top together on 16 January 2021. The east face has never been climbed.

For anyone who is not a mountaineer, the goal is Concordia, the great confluence of the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers at about 4,690 metres, named by Aleister Crowley during a 1902 attempt on K2 after the Konkordiaplatz in the Bernese Alps. The trek follows the Baltoro Glacier, 63 km long and ringed by some of the highest peaks on the planet, with K2 and three other 8,000-metre summits within about 20 km. Many trekkers continue to K2 Base Camp. The route lies within Central Karakoram National Park, and growing numbers have left waste and animal remains along the trail, so carrying out everything you bring matters here.

Getting there

The gateway is Skardu, about 103 km from the summit in a straight line and served by Skardu International Airport (KDU), about 107 km away. From Skardu a road runs up the Shigar and Braldu valleys to Askole (3,040 m), the last settlement and the starting point for the multi-day trek along the Baltoro Glacier to Concordia. Treks depend on local porters and pack mules. Check permit requirements before you go; the Chinese approach, which involves crossing the Shaksgam River, is rarely used.