Pakistan has some of the richest mountain ranges, the Himalayas, the Hindukush and the Karakorum converging in the northern areas capped with some of the world’s tallest peak among them K-2, the world’s second highest at 8611m known to locals and ancient Tibetan as Chogori.
It is the world’s biggest pyramid of rock, ice and snow with its great-serrated slops and the most elegent mountain standing alone, dominating the entire surroundings.
Discovered by Sir Godwin Austen in 1861 its ‘perfect cone’ astounded Colonel Francies young Husband in 1887 when he first saw it. William Martin Conway then arrived on the scene in 1892 in the great ice junction, which he named Concordia. But it was not until 1909 when the Duke of Abruzzi expedition reconnoitered K-2, that a good account of the mountain became available. The southeast ridge by which he made his aborted attempt is still known as the Abruzzi Ridge that has now become the normal expedition route on K-2. The great south face, 3500m high offers the most familiar look by which photographers have helped to fix its image. The famous Abruzzi Ridge above the Godwin Austen Glacier directly to the summit of the shoulder. The South-South West ridge often known as the “Magic Line” which is just behind the Angel Peak is a 2300m sheer climb from Negretto Saddle. Its north face was explored in 1937 by Eric Shipton.
After a number of failed attempts by mainly Americans and Italians, it was in 1954 that an Italian expedition under the leadership of Professor Ardito Desio got the summit. Two Italian members of this expedition namely Achille Compagnoni & Lino Lacedelli became the first to scale the summit from where they witnessed a “dream-like world”. The ascent of K-2 was a great event not only for Italy but the whole mountaineering world. Having been summated the mountain remained unclimbed for another spell of over 20 years. A few attempts were made between 1974 and 1976 but were not successful.
1977 was the year when new faces appeared on the Baltoro and the same year a large Japanese/Pakistani team put seven climbers on the top of K-2. Among them Ashraf Aman became the first Pakistani to have scaled K-2 on 9th August 1977, Nazir Sabir summitted K-2 via west ridge – a more technically challenging route – with Waseda University Alpine Club on August 7, 1981, Rajab Shah and Mehrab Shah reached the top of K-2 with a team from Holland in 1995. Since the early years of the 20th century, over 100 attempts have been made on K-2, out of which nearly one-third succeeded. The ascent of K-2 has claimed many lives. Climbers described it as the Mountaineers’ mountains for the sheer skill that is required to negotiate its technical passage up the pyramid from almost any route.
