History

The first serious attempt to climb K2 was made in 1902. Oscar Eckenstein and Aleister Crowley undertook 5 attempts via the Northeast Ridge, but didn’t make it any higher then 6525 meter.

The next expedition to the summit of K2 was set up by Luigi Amedeo, duke of Abruzzi. The Abruzzi Spur was named after him. Later on, the Abruzzi Spur would be come the standard route, but in 1909 it was considered too difficult and too steep. The expeditie didn’t het any higher then 6250 meter on this route.

The next attempt to climb K2 was not undertaken until 1938. An American expedition, lead by Charles Houston, decided that the Abruzzi Spur was the most practical route and made it up to 8000 meter. At this point, they needed to turn back because their supplies ran out and the weather forecast were not good.

In 1939, an expedition lead by Fritz Wiessner made it to 200 meter below the summit, but lost 4 climbers high on the mountain.

In 1953, Charles Houston returned for a new attempt with an American expedition. The climbers were stuck in a storm for 10 days at 7800 meters. One of the expedition members became sick at that altitude. During an attempt to go back down with the sick climber, there was an accident. Everyone, except for the sick climber survived the accident because Pete Schoening managed to stop the fall of the other 5 climbers on his own with an ice axe.

In the end, it was an Italian expedition that reached the summit of K2 on 31st July, 1954. The 2 climbers that reached the summit were Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni. This expedition is very controversial though. Walter Bonatti and the Pakistani porter Mahdi, carried oxygen bottles to the highest camp. Bonatti was a very strong climber and because Lacedelli and Compagnoni feared that he would reach the summit before they did, they refused to allow Bonatti and Mahdi to spend the night in their tent. Bonatti and Mahdi were forced to spend the night in open air at 8100 meter. The next morning, after Bonatti and Mahdi had started their descent, Lacedelli and Compagnoni picked up the oxygen bottles and left for the summit. Mahdi lost several fingers and toes because of frostbite during his bivouac at 8100 meter.

K2 was not climbed a second time until 1977. The expedition was lead by Ichiro Yoshizawa. For the first time, a Pakistani (Ashraf Aman) made it to the summit as well. The Japanse expedition climbed via the Abruzzi Spur and used a total of 1500 porters.

In 1978, the Americans for the first time used the Northeast Ridge and made it to the top with 4 climbers. In 1982, K2 was climbed for the first time via the Chinese side by a Japanese expedition.

The first mountaineer that succeeded in climbing K2 twice was the Czech Josef Rakoncaj (1983 and 1986). Since them, only 3 people have accomplised this, amongst others by 2 Nepalse. The first woman to reach the summit of K2 was Wanda Rutkiewicz (1986) from Poland. Since then, 1o women have reached the summit.