Earth's second highest mountain — and by every measure of danger, difficulty, and remoteness, the most serious high-altitude objective on the planet.
K2 is 237 metres lower than Everest, but it is by most measures a harder and more dangerous mountain. Where Everest has a relatively straightforward (though high-altitude) approach and a well-defined route, K2 has no easy way up. Every route is technical, exposed, and subject to sudden, violent weather generated by the Karakoram's position at the convergence of three major air masses.
The death rate on K2 is approximately one death for every four successful summits — compared to roughly one in ten on Everest. The mountain has been summited roughly 400 times total (compared to over 10,000 Everest summits). It was the last of the 14 eight-thousanders without a winter ascent — a Polish team achieved this in January 2021 in an extraordinary feat of high-altitude mountaineering.
From a distance — from the Baltoro Glacier at Concordia — K2 looks like a pyramid: perfectly symmetrical, shockingly steep. There's something about its geometry that communicates danger at a level Everest's more rounded summit never quite does. Every mountaineer who has stood at its base describes it the same way: it looks improbable.
| 1856 | First surveyed by Thomas Montgomerie of the Survey of India. Named K2 (second peak measured in Karakoram). |
| 1902 | First serious attempt by Oscar Eckenstein and Aleister Crowley. Reached approximately 6,600m. |
| 1939 | Fritz Wiessner (American expedition) reached 8,382m — astonishingly close to the summit without supplemental oxygen. One death on descent. |
| 1953 | American expedition. Charles Houston's team retreated in a desperate storm, losing Art Gilkey to illness (likely pulmonary embolism). |
| July 31, 1954 | First summit: Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli (Italian expedition) via the Abruzzi Spur. The ascent was mired in controversy over oxygen use that continues to this day. |
| 1986 | The deadliest season in K2 history — 13 deaths in one summer. |
| August 2008 | 11 mountaineers killed in one incident — the worst single disaster in K2 history, involving falling seracs and fixed rope failure during descent. |
| January 2021 | First winter summit: Nirmal Purja and nine other Nepali climbers. First-ever winter ascent of the last unclimbed-in-winter 8,000m peak. |
You don't need to be a mountaineer to see K2. The base camp trek is open to anyone in reasonable fitness. The approach via Askole and the Baltoro Glacier takes 8–10 days of walking to reach K2 Base Camp (5,150m). No technical climbing is required. The views from base camp and from Concordia (4,600m) are among the most dramatic landscapes accessible to trekkers anywhere on Earth.
Full K2 Base Camp trek guide →
Permits are required (Baltoro Restricted Zone, Rs.4,000 for Pakistanis / USD 50 for foreigners). Porters and guide arrangements in Skardu. Best months: June–August. Permits guide →