piercing the Himalayan sky a forbidding monolith of rock snow and ice raw unyielding k2 the savage Mountain more deadly than Everest k2 seduces the best climbers on earth some will reach the summit many will die these are their stories suddenly right in front of me there was this giant triangular peak rearing up into the sky I just froze in place this colossal pyramid has no weaknesses that is unrelentingly steep it puts a magic spell on you and it just doesn't let you go for more than a hundred years Katie's magnetic pole has lured explorers adventurers and elite climbers but for decades the mighty summit rejected them all even today the odds of success are grim for every three climbers who reached the top one will die today no less than a century ago the price for entrance here is passion grit and an unwavering will to win all in the quest for k2 August 18 1990 a four-man team struggles upward on k2s treacherous north spur here above 26,000 feet there is no room for error one misstep can spell near certain death yet the extreme lack of oxygen robs the men of both judgment and strength their most severe test will be the final push for the summit though all the men have tried k2 before none has made it to the top this is my third time on k2 you know these other guys were on k2 the south side and 87 but I'd been on this route before and there's no other place in the world that's like it we've got good Willard all the way north up into China as you're going up you have this fixed pool of energy it's like your bank account you know you've got so much money in the bank and as you're going up you're making these withdrawals one of the problems think a lot of people have on these trips is when they get to the top they don't have any any money left in the bank to get down before you pull that last penny out of your account most do not make it more men and women have flown into space that have stood on the top of this mountain k2 is part of the Karakoram a mountain range to the northwest of Mount Everest at the border of Pakistan and China the first known record of k2 dates to 1856 lieutenant TG Montgomery arrived in the Karakoram with a mandate to map the farthest reaches of the British Empire a mountain range loomed before him but he was unable to cross the last 130 miles to reach it he sketched the most prominent peaks as k1 and k2 k1 was later found to have a local name masher broom but for the bigger mountain the surveyors stark label k2 held fast word of the discovery sparked interest among explorers worldwide but the region was so remote and inaccessible the mountain was often called the third Pole in 1909 Italy's leading explorer the Duke of the Abruzzi was the first to launch a major assault on k2 armed with a huge team of men and supplies he spent months traveling by boat foot and horseback simply to get there the expedition has quite a big event regardless of the mountain at the other end and I mean in order to carry out all the surveying and everything else I mean they had to be quite big unfortunately it did become the norm and certainly perpetuated the idea that expeditions were these great quasi military affairs the Duke Space Camp was the center of operations from there he planned to ferry supplies up the mountain to a series of higher camps and eventually the summit he began a careful reconnaissance looking for a route to the top the expedition was documented by the world-famous mountain photographer Vittorio Sela his dazzling pictures would inspire a generation of climbers who relied on him his guides clearly they were looking for the easiest possible way up and I think it must have come as a bit of a shock on k2 to fan there wasn't an easy way and there still isn't the Duke of the Abruzzi opted for an ascent along a Ridge or spur that would later bear his name it looked quite climb at least from where he stood as the Duke of the Abruzzi found out the nearer you get to the mountain the more complex and the more broken it is very shattered quite steep when you get on to it you're zigzagging around all the time and it's not not at all straightforward The Rock's terrible Katy's a serious mountaineering proposition by any route having exhausted wood seemed like every possible strategy the duke declared k2 would never be climbed he was taken at his word and for nearly three decades not a single attempt was made on k2 in 1938 the American Alpine Club sent a team to k2 to prove the Italian wrong the group was led by Charlie Houston a young experienced climber he invited his friend Bob Bates to join him the Alpine Club said you guys go out and find the rude Scout the mountain and we'll send a really strong expedition next year in choosing the party Bob and I deliberately did not choose the best American climbers we chose people that we thought would get along together that people that we liked we thought would be compatible we knew we had to walk from Kashmir from the Vale of Kashmir over the Shoji laughed we had to go over and the ponies and porters then we had 350 miles to walk along the Indus River we were traveling through these enormous Rocky Mountains suddenly we go around this corner up ahead whammo it was an absolutely wonderful moment I think that is the excitement of the most wonderful Mountain Vista in the whole world here the huge opening and all these 25,000 foot pigs and you think then what it can't be anything better than this after attempting roots on three sides of the mountain they returned to the same one chosen by the Italian Duke they named it the Abruzzi spur in his honor over the next two weeks the team climbed 220 1500 feet but were stopped by a solid rock wall more than a hundred and sixty feet high the end of the road they thought until Bill House spotted a narrow vertical passage it would later bear his name houses chimney bill house in La Leslie House Tim Lee which was the harvest section builded the leaving he was a top rock climber till he started up a little why largely without hand holes or foot holes but wedging himself in houses chimney is pushing the envelope and almost every good climber who's gone to k2 since then has said that houses chimney is right at the fringe of what could be done at any time it so it's a hard climb the team would later be nicknamed the Cowboys of k2 we were arrogant we work hockey but just by keeping going and doing things as they came along we got up to within what we thought was striking distance the summons the top of k2 28000 262 feet was only 2,000 feet above them the team had already made it 90% of the way then a small but vital detail would be their undoing matches they'd run out without fire they could not melt snow for water and without water they could die we had to have water and have something hot too we didn't know about altitude deterioration to that point but we'd been above 20,000 feet for maybe a week at that point and I think we're all beginning to feel it the team turned back but not in defeat as far as I'm concerned we did exactly the right thing we found the right route the next team should have no difficulty following our step so we'll go home nobody got hurt we got home safely having done we're not to do back in the United States one man scoffed at the idea that any mountain could be - climber down frits v's nur was certain he had the ability and tenacity to do what Houston steam had not known as a brilliant rock climber he had a score of successes to his name but his personality was perhaps as well-known as his skill when Vizsla went to k2 in 1939 he was by far and away the strongest climber on the trip and B was an autocrat Feaster saw himself as the leader and led from the front as opposed to Charlie he was de grâce Democrats and business idea was that if you're strong enough you follow me and if you're not you fall by the wayside in the midst of an economic depression money for the expedition was hard to come by these nur made compromises he would later regret choosing climbers with more wealth than experienced socialite Dudley wolf was among them Dudley wolf was a playboy and the Great Gatsby tradition it was a big clumsy but very wealthy outdoor time wolf was the major funder of the expedition that's how this guy found himself high on k2 guy who's fought out the cash for the trip is given the chance to go as far as possible as the weeks passed wolf was desperate to prove himself he amazed everyone by climbing higher than most of his teammates beyond 25,000 feet but it was only with visa nurse help visa actually did have quite a lot of time for Dudley wolf and felt that you know because of his enthusiasm his commitment he should try and get him as high up the mountain as possible but he did it in what many people would now see as being particularly reckless way finally wolf grew too weak to go on he would wait in their nearest camp for the rest of the team while Vesna and sure purposing Lama pushed for the summit when he got to what's now known as the bottleneck above the shoulder of k2 he saw that it was threatened by an enormous band of ice and he opted for safety and tried to the left by climbing some technically very difficult rock I stopped rock with a Sherpa who wasn't really equipped to do this and he'd very nearly done the difficult bit and the Sherpa came to his senses and said you know they're ghosts up there and we're all going to die and refused to pay the Rope out these nur wanted to try again but needed to go down for more equipment he left ugly wolf resting high on the mountain and promised to return for another summit attempt our judgement debated to this day the strongest member of the expedition veasna left the weakest and that was the really fatal mistake that once fear had gone down leaving a guy on his own in a tent just about 8,000 meters wolf was probably probably doomed even even at that stage in 1939 nobody knew that wolf had been too high far too long as visnur and pasang lama descended they found that each of their camps was deserted the Sherpas had thought the climbers above were dead finally veasna and Poisson reached base camp nearly 24 hours later Dudley wolf was alone more than 8,000 feet above but v-star the man who had helped wolf up the mountain was far too weakened to get him down sharpest mounted a rescue attempt climbing an astonishing 6500 feet their first day despite their heroic efforts neither they dudley wolf were ever seen again the savage mountain had claimed its first four victims even today k2 exacts its deadly toll the mountain is no less savage the summit no less remote you're always conscious that that this is a dangerous place and others have died around you it's a very strange thing you voluntarily go to this very dangerous place and do this very dangerous thing and you're constantly thinking of other people who've died all around you yet you're doing it whatever else happens on Summit day climbers must face the mountain alone each person has to be much more self-reliant they have to just accept it suddenly when you're way above 8,000 meters you're in a world where there isn't a whole lot that your partners can do for you if you break down we're preparing for our our final hopefully trip to climb to the summit of k2 I was really excited tomorrow was our big day and we were gonna have our big day I think that's one of the really neat things about going off to do these things too is how much you rely on just that on hope you know and just that things will be okay and that you'll make it hope and a dream have pulled hundreds to this mountain sometimes it's the dream of a nation in 1954 when our dito Desio led the big Italian expedition it was in the wake of the Brits on Everest in 1953 a British team had put the first two climbers on top of Mount Everest the world's tallest mountain an Italian team immediately made plans to claim the second-highest peak its leader Rd hoed SEO was not a climber but a geographer who had first seen k2 in 1929 on a scientific expedition the Italians felt that they did have a historical reason for going there while nobody did for so long was that people just realized it was it was in a different different ballgame to Everest decía organized the expedition with all the seriousness of a military campaign he knew that while k2 was some seven hundred feet lower than Everest it was a much tougher challenge he brought a strong climbing team and provided them with every possible advantage tons of food and equipment were supplied including bottled oxygen like the British used on Everest it took 500 Porter's to ferry this massive load may 31st 1954 the Italian expedition arrived at base camp Dessie Oh had brought radio equipment which he used to talk to his climbers as they made their way up the mountain often he spoke to me just to offer encouragement because despite all of his best planning the savage mountain pounded his team one climber paid with his life and for more than two months others were besieged by illness injury and exhaustion but decía urged them onward proclaiming the honor of italian mountaineering is at stake in the early morning hours of July 31st there were just two Italian climbers in position for the summit Achille company and lino lucha deli when their oxygen ran out they nearly suffocated but they refused to turn back above them lay a world not meant for humans a world were only wind and storm had ever brushed the virgin snow 12 hours later the Italian in Pakistan Oh flags waved proudly from the summit of k2 company and matcha Delhi filmed the majesty that lay before them the first views from one of the most remote pieces of real estate on earth the pictures came at a price company had removed his gloves to operate the camera he would lose several fingers to frostbite the two highest peaks on earth had finally been summited by the British on Everest and the Italians on k2 the Italian climbers received a hero's welcome as Professor Desio had predicted he had told if you succeed in scaling this peak the entire world will hail you as champions in the decades to follow hundreds more would be drawn to the mountain only a handful would reach the top even today with the most modern advances no one is truly safe on these savage slopes the elements are no less fickle or cruel and even the hint of a storm can still spell disaster thing is when you're going for the summit and you wake up to a clear blue sky your ambition and the nature of your desire to get up there and get to the top and then be done with it is such that you'll probably take the chance and try and outrun the storm which is certainly how a lot of people have died on k2 you only have a fairly limited window of time that you can get from your high camp to the summit and back down so speed is safety it started off beautiful weather and then all of a sudden out of nowhere came a bunch of clouds kind of wrapping around the mountain we had to have a little discussion about should we turn around or should we keep going and we decided to keep going the men took a huge gamble with their very lives this time they won we did outrun the storm but we could easily have been completely wrong in our judgment and an hour after continuing up to the summit ridge we could have been pinned down by winds and still be there today they summited k2 and survived but like all who came before them they had done more than climb a mountain ignoring every risk they pursued a uniquely human quest thank the fact that genuinely the exploration of the past and most remote points of the earth people can still see that that is exploration but climbing unclimbed chunks of the earth is in the great tradition of you know Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus or whatever and I think it's some basic bit of human nature that wants to actually see what's around the next corner and that finds its epitome in climbing in one sense k2 has already been discovered and explored yet this ever-changing wilderness remains forever a new world thus when the savage mountain calls the bowl will always answer the quest for k2 has only just begun you you
