The positive side of Pakistan - Newspaper dawn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dawn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Nepali mountaineers achieve historic winter first on K2
With their ‘impossible’ summit of the world’s second-tallest mountain, Nepali climbers send national pride surging in the Himalaya.
ByFreddie Wilkinson
Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
A team of 10 Nepali climbers reached the 28,251-foot summit of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, on Saturday, January 16th, according to several reports on social media. This long-sought achievement adds a stunning new chapter to mountaineering history.
Located in Pakistan’s part of the Karakoram range, K2 is the last of the world’s 14 tallest mountains all higher than 8,000 meters to be climbed in winter. It is considered by far the most difficult and dangerous because of the technical climbing required to reach the top.
K2: The savage mountain | Special Report thenews.com.pk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thenews.com.pk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Jan. 23, 2021
K2, the second highest mountain in the world.Credit.De Agostini, via Getty Images
It’s not often that a team of climbers attempts K2, the “Savage Mountain,” in winter.
Before this season, the world’s second-highest mountain, first climbed in 1954, had been tried only six times in the coldest months. Each effort ended in failure. Even so, last month two expeditions of Nepali climbers converged on the Godwin Austen Glacier in a remote corner of Pakistan to attempt the feat.
Neither of the groups was there to guide wealthy Western clients to the top and then take back seats to their accomplishments, as Nepalis in general and ethnic Sherpa in particular often do as the hired help. They were climbing for themselves. Both teams made it together to the 28,251-foot summit last Saturday, making a statement of teamwork and selflessness for Indigenous Himalayan climbers.