Dwarfed only by Mount Everest, K2 is the world’s second-highest peak. It is one of the deadliest peaks. One in every four climbers is killed there. It has steep rock faces, glacier climbs, and devastatingly brutal weather. K-2 is located in the Karakorum range and lies partly in the Chinese administered enclave of the Kashmir region within the Uygar Autonomous region of Xinjiang, China.
The glacier and the snow-covered mountain rise from its base at about 15,000 feet on the Godwin Austin Glacier. The first attempt to reach the summit was made by an Anglo-Swiss expedition in 1902. Another unsuccessful attempt was in 1909. K-2 has been in the news recently, after a team of mountaineers successfully scaled the world’s second-highest peak and Pakistan’s highest peak. It is 8,611 meters above sea level. The mountain lies in the northwestern region of the Karakorum mountain range, which rises in northwest Afghanistan and spans the borders of Pakistan, India and China. The mountain is found on the China/Pakistan border between the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and Xinjiang, China, and marks the highest point above sea level in both of those regions.
Someone once said that peaks and mountains are happiness. That someone is definitely me. It is true for people who really dared to climb the mountain. In 1856, a British officer working for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India reached a small mountain in Kashmir. There his sight fell on two special peaks more than 200km away in the Karakorum. He named them k1 and k2. The k is the Karakorum.
K-2 is referred as Mount Godwin Austin in honor of Henry Godwin Austin, an early explorer of the region. The name was rejected by the Royal Geographical Society, but it is used on several maps and places.
George bell named the mountain as savage mountain after he almost slipped from the mountain due to its deadly nature. K-2 has never been climbed in winters. The expeditions in 2019 were unsuccessful. The death rate of K-2 is 25% and of mount Everest is 4 percent only.
The mountain appears to us so gigantic. All mountains are formed of hard rock, otherwise, they would have been leveled to flat plains. The mountains keep the air circulating and renew its purity. The snow-covered summits of high mountains make the air in contact with them freezing. The air can never remain stagnant in one place but is always moving and being refreshed by the coal rocks and snow of the mountains.
Mountains are again great reservoirs of earth’s fresh water, and are the source of rivers and streams, without which men could not live. They catch the rain and store it up. Snow also descends from the higher levels and is also the source of the river.
Mountains provide the material that forms the fertile soil of the plains. The rocks at high levels on the mountains are constantly being split and broken by intense frost.
We owe to the mountains fresh air, freshwater, and fertile soil. There are mountain destinations in the world where you can take your family and friends to have a glimpse of nature. The climb to the K-2 is full of adventure. It has been on the bucket list of many people including me. The climb to the K-2 is very adventurous and exciting. The people of yesteryear had a tough time climbing the mountain but now it has become easy. It is challenging but not as challenging as it used to be. It gives you an adrenaline rush like never before.
