Rahil khan
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GILGIT: Six mountaineers from Gilgit-Baltistan were among over a dozen mountaineers who reached K-2′s summit (8,611m) on Saturday afternoon, to mark 60 years since K-2, the second tallest mountain in the world, was first scaled.
The six Pakistanis including Hassan Jan, Ali Durani, Rahmat Ullah Baig, Ghulam Mehdi, Ali and Muhammad Sadiq managed to reach summit shortly after lunch on Saturday, four of them without supplemental oxygen. They are part of a joint Pakistan-Italian team that was attempting the summit to mark 60 years since Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli first scaled the ‘savage mountain’.
A total of 60 climbers in seven teams are currently attempting to summit K-2 in two waves over 48 hours as the mountain afforded a rare extended weather window.
“Muhammad Sadiq is part of the six member team that has made it to K2,” tour operator Hasan Khan, confirmed on Saturday, soon after the conquest. They were among the first of the climbers to reach the top on Saturday.
Sadiq is a resident of Gilgit-Baltistan and younger brother of famous mountaineer Hasan Sadpara. Four of the mountaineers hail from Hushe valley of Baltistan, while one is from Shimshal of Gojal.
“Another 30 mountaineers in another group are following and soon will make it to the summit,” said Khan.
Two Italian mountaineers, Michele Cucchi and Simone Origone, and a documentary-filmmaker and climber, Daniele Nardi, are also accompanying the climbers. Though Origone returned to camp-4 due to a headache.
However, only eight members of the team attempted the summit on Saturday
The venture is supported by the Gilgit-Baltistan government and sponsored by the Italian organisation Ev-K2-CNR.
However, that was not the end of the good news.
At least 10 other climbers managed to reach the summit on Saturday.
Among the climbers was Czech mountaineer Radek Jaros at the head of his own team. This was reportedly Jaros’ 14th summit over 8,000m, thereby becoming the 31st person to complete all eight thousanders and the first Czech to do so. Czech Trávníček also managed to summit right after him.
The groups who managed to summit today are: International expedition (Adrian Hayes, Al Hancock), Chris Burke and Lhakpa Sherpa, Italian expedition (Giuseppe Pompili, Tamara Lunger, Nikolaus Gruber and Amin Baig), Czech Expedition led by Radek Jaros, Greek Duo (Alexandros Aravidis and Panagiotis Athanasiadis), Ferran Latorre, Pakistani-Italian Expedition (10 members, eight summited) and a Nepalese All Female Expedition.
The savage mountain
K-2 is located on the border between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.
The first attempt on K-2 was in 1902 by Aleister Crowley and Oscar Eckenstein. They led a team of six climbers and tried to climb the northeast ridge. They failed after 68 days. It was a very bold climb when high-altitude climbing was still getting started.
However in 1954 two Italians – Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli – reached the top of K-2 on 31 July 1954, making K-2 an all time attractive back in Italy.
