K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, just 237 metres shorter than Everest. But mountaineers fear K2 a lot more. Its slopes are steeper, the storms are nastier, and there is no easy route to the top from any side.
Around one climber dies for every four who reach the summit. That terrible ratio earned K2 the nickname “the Savage Mountain.” It also has no permanent base-camp infrastructure like Everest does - climbers are very much on their own up there.
The peak sits on the border between Pakistan and China, in a tangle of giant glaciers called the Karakoram. The first winter ascent happened only in 2021, when a team of ten Nepali climbers reached the summit together while singing their national anthem.
