k2 in pakistan

As we all know about k2 is the 2nd highest mountain in the world.its 8611m high beautiful and all covered with snow.its in the north of Pakistan on pakistan-china border in Karakorum range .hundred of people all over the world come to claim it in summer season.

k2 is not simple to claim,its the most finest and dangerous mountain in the world.numbers of unsuccessful attempts made on it by different expeditions,which includes all over the world expeditions.

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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).

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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."
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.

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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, 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. 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.

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Abruzzi Spur

Carl Drew climbing ladders on Abruzzi Spur The standard route of ascent, used far more than any other route, is the Abruzzi Spur, 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 summated the peak in 2002 and 2003.

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

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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. 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.

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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. 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, and Rutkiewicz herself died on Kangchenjunga in 1992. This led to the legend that K2 carried a "curse on women". However, the "curse" was broken in 2004 when Edurne Pasaban summated 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 summated 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. In addition, Mi-Sun Go became the eleventh woman to have summated, also on 1 August 2008.

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