The difficulty and danger of climbing mountains in the snow season must be understood by many people, and now that it is winter, a group of people are trying to challenge K2, the world's second highest peak.
A total of four teams arrived at the K2 base camp at an altitude of 5 kilometers before Christmas 2020, and their goal was the same, to challenge the summit K2 in winter, and this has not yet been done, because the winter K2 is too dangerous, the weather is changeable, and a sudden blizzard may kill everyone, so although some people have challenged the winter summit K2 in the past, no one has yet succeeded.
And this year, maybe everything will be different.
The Nepalese Sherpa team, led by Mingma G, who has climbed Mount Everest five times, arrived at K2 base camp at 12/18 and has secured the rope to Camp 3 until 12/30, and even the one to Camp 4 has been fixed, so the exciting news has also encouraged all the other teams trying to reach the summit, and now the team is waiting for the weather to improve before reaching the top.
Assisting Nepal's Sherpa team in setting up the ropes was another figure, Nirmal Purja, a colleague of Mingma G's, but led another team up the hill. Nirmal Purja is also a legend, he climbed 14 mountains of more than 8 kilometers in half a year, and set 10 world records, including the highest 8,000 meters in spring (a total of six), the highest 8,000 meters in summer (a total of five), the world's three and five peaks at the fastest speed: Everest, K2, Gancheng Zhangjia, as well as Lhotse, Makalu and so on.
So, how hard is it to climb K2 in winter?
The first is the temperature, according to the report, the current temperature in Camp 1 is about -40ºC, and the temperature may also drop again, such a low temperature, easy to cause frostbite, according to other climbers, there are several Nepalese Sherpa team members, has developed frostbite, but it is not yet sure whether the severity of the injury and whether they will continue to climb.
The second is snowfall, K2 peak in the winter will often appear heavy snowfall, when the huge amount of snow falls from the sky, not only will it make it more difficult to move forward, even the ropes that are hard to erect will be buried and frozen, so it is not to mention the need to climb up.
Finally, the wind speed, the closer to the peak the stronger the wind speed, up to 100mph, in terms of wind speed classification, equivalent to 14 winds, in this case do not say climbing, even standing.
For a variety of reasons, fewer than 400 people successfully reach K2 each year, and all in the spring and summer (compared to about 7,500 people climbing Everest each year).
This year, is it possible to set a record?
As mentioned earlier, two very outstanding mountaineers joined the ranks of the winter climb K2 this year, making this impossible task no longer impossible. Coupled with the weather forecast, the weather conditions show that there are several days of weather conditions suitable for the summit, so that the hope of climbing to the top is greatly increased.
While progress is good, there are also rumors that there have been retreats, with Polish mountaineer Waldemar Kowalewski having to retreat because of a hernia, the second time he has challenged the summit K2 in the winter, the previous time giving up after being injured by a falling snow block
Climbing to the top K2 requires not only mountaineering technology, but also patience and willpower, in bad weather conditions, you must wait patiently in the tent, you can only keep praying that the weather will get better, which may take weeks of time, for every mountaineer is torture, so challenging winter climbing K2 requires too many elements, perhaps in the end, more need is luck?
About K2
Mountains over 8,000 meters have their own names, such as Lhotse and Everest, except for K2, which has no name of its own.
Located on the Karakoram Mountains, K2 has an average elevation of over 5,500 meters, making it the region with the highest glacial density in the world. When western expeditions first arrived in the area in 1856, they measured the peaks in the area by triangulation and identified five peaks in the order of investigation, namely: MashaBlom (K1), K2, Bloat (K3), Gashurbrumu II (K4), and Gashurbrum I (K5).
So why does K2 never have a name?
Legend has it that K2 has never had its own name because of its remote location and the proximity of the mountain, which can only be glimpsed at most by a cursory glance. Later explorers spelled out the name Chogori in the local language, Chinese translated as Chogori Peak, meaning dashan, which was recognized and widely used in China. Later, it was proposed to name Austin Peak after Henry Godwin-Austen, an early explorer in the district, but it was not recognized. So until now, K2 is still called K2, but it also increases the mystery of this mountain, and some people joke that only this name is worthy of this most difficult mountain on the surface.
As of 2019, only about 400 people have successfully climbed K2, and statistics show that the mortality rate of climbing K2 is nearly 30%, and one in every four people dies, which is the highest mortality rate among all mountains above 8 kilometers.