The Apricot Tours K2 Winter 2020 team arrived in Skardu and was joined by team leader Mingma G.
They briefed with Liaison Officers and enjoyed a K2-themed cake gifted to them by other members of the mountaineering community in Skardu.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Dolomites make up a vast mountain range in Northeastern Italy. They are a treasure for climbers and the scientific community.
When we think of the Dolomites, we think of the late Tom Ballard, who felt the most at home in this Italian paradise. Stretching across 350,650 acres (141,903 ha.) of rocky summits, this mountain range has been appealing to mountaineers and scientists for decades.
Climbing Mount Everest costs over $65,000 when climbing with a commercial guiding company. The cost of your expedition is high due to the amenities offered and the popularity of the climb.
Here are 14 mountain photos for winter climbing motivation some of you may need as the season approaches. Lax your boredom for a bit and enjoy these amazing shots from around the world. Check out some of these neat facts while you’re at it.
How much do you know about Mount Everest? We start learning about Mount Everest from the moment we can understand speech. Through random sayings, news segments in the background about a disaster… it seems to always come up. But how much do you really know about Mount Everest?
A team of Nepalese scientists heads out to measure Mount Everest and verify if the 2015 Nepal Earthquake shrunk the mountain.
The Richard Bass Seven Summits List is a list of the seven tallest mountains in each of the seven continents. Unlike Messner’s List, it only references mainland Australia, vs all of Oceania.
The Bass List comprises Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Kosciuszko and Vinson.
The acclaimed son of Alison Hargreaves has disappeared on Nanga Parbat while on an expedition in late February with Daniele Nardi.
The last time the pair were heard from was on Sunday, 24 February 2019.
Tom Ballard is the son of Alison Hargreaves, first woman to summit Mount Everest during a solo climb without supplemental oxygen. She died 3 months later on K2 at the age of 33. Ballard is 30.
For decades, mountaineers have attempted to climb K2 in winter, with the most recent being Apricot Tours in 2020. They have all failed, but data shows promise that it can be done.
Many expeditions have tried including the 2018 Krzysztof Wielicki expedition that rescued Elisabeth Revol on Nanga Parbat. Other expeditions were attempted it in 1988, 2003, 2012 and 2015, and 2019.
Yesterday, he announced that today is the day for the summit bid start!
We, and all you reading this now, have been keeping our fingers crossed in hopes of good weather for the summit attempt for Fredrik Sträng’s Sigma K2017 Expedition. In our last Dispatch, we left Fredrik waiting patiently as he watched the stars and contemplated his place amongst them and measured his size against the mountain.
Moving on from Camp 1 after breakfast in his tent this morning, Fredrik Sträng commences the climb to Camp 2 and beyond.
Still snowing each day since his arrival on K2, Fredrik Sträng has made the best of the weather and window opportunities afforded to him on the mountain, always keeping physically active and exercising his mental capacities to remain in top shape for the summit.
Swedish mountaineer Fredrik Sträng has made it safely to Islamabad, Pakistan and is on track to commence K2 2017.
Sträng is in good spirits and keeping good company, excited about the days ahead. Sträng now begins the daunting task of organizing the gear and food he arranged to have shipped to Islamabad on 04, June, prior to his arrival.
First ascended by Achille Compagnoni on 31 July 1954, the mountain has since sprouted various routes across its faces that lead to the top.
Whether or not you’re crazy enough to attempt it, you’re not getting anywhere without a roadmap. Mountaineers usually take one of these ten pre-determined routes to the peak of K2.
Everest2017 is over, but there’s another season on the horizon. K22017 is just around the corner, and with it, comes a lot of preparation and thoughts, both good and bad. In this Editor’s Note, Base Camp Magazine’s Editor talks a bit about what to expect for K2’s upcoming climbing season and who BCM is watching closely on the mountain.
For every mountaineering season, I have a pick of mountaineers, expedition companies, guides… that I seem more interested in watching as they complete journeys; each season the picks are different, but some are constant favorites. This year, for the K2 season, I am watching Fredrik Sträng closely.
Thankfully, YouTube is an entire resource for some of the best K2 docs out there. These are some of the best K2 mountaineering documentaries you can watch on YouTube that we’ve found.
Everest may be on every mountaineer’s bucket list, but true mountaineers know the prize lies on the summit of K2, or Karakoram 2, the King of Mountains; At just 800 ft. shorter than Everest, K2 is the world’s second highest mountain; and while Everest is the tallest, it does not compare in any measure to the brutality that is an expedition on K2.
By measure of ratio, the death count on K2 is much higher than that of Everest, with well-documented mountaineering disasters in 1986, 1995 and the most recent in 2008; the 2008 disaster has been known as the most controversial of all.
For every 100 mountaineers that attempt a summit on K2, 29 will die. Only 306 climbers have succeeded, 80+ have perished. Compared to Everest’s 5600+ summits and around 300 deaths, K2’s reputation is accurately captured by something as simple as numbers.
K2 was dubbed Karakoram 2 in 1856 by T.G. Montgomerie, the name stuck.
If you’re over 50, you might want to cross “climbing Everest” off your bucket list of things to do. The governments of Nepal and Bengal have proposed new rules that will limit access to the mountain from climbers over 50 and novice climbers, however, new talks say the age limit has been increased to 75. While most understand the Nepalese and Bengalese Governments’ reasons for wanting to limit the amount of climbers on Everest, most mountaineers and alpine experts doubt the restrictions will pass for a few reasons. According to their proposal:
Base Camp Magazine 