Statistics

Climbs per day

The climbing season on K2 starts in June and ends in August. June is usually the month when climbers focus on preparing a summit attempt, although there have been succuessful attempts on K2 in June in the past. But most summit attempts take place in July and August. Especially the timeframe between the middle of July and the middle of August is popular. As of the middle of August, it becomes to warm which makes the ice and the snow instable. The avalanche danger then becomes unacceptable.

Climbs per year

Since 1977, K2 is climbed on a regular basis. And there is a noticeable increase. Now that Everest is becoming quite popular. mountaineers are looking for a new challenge and quite a few of them turn to K2. On top of that, mountaineering in general is becoming more popular. But even now, in some years not a single climber manages to make it to the summit.

Succesful summits per country

The Japanese are by far the most succesful country on K2.  But Italy does pretty well. This is probably a consequence of the history of K2 with mountaineers such as Walter Bonatti and Luigi Amedeo. Belgium is not on the list yet, but hopefully, we can fix that this summer.

Nationality	Amount		Nationality	Amount
Japan	49		Czech Republic	3
Italy	36		Slovenia	2
South Korea	28		Sweden	2
Spain	24		New Zee\aland	2
Russia	18		Norway	2
Nepal	18		Slovakia	1
USA	15		Mexico	1
Switzerland	12		Croatia	1
Pakistan	11		Denmark	1
France	10		Finland	1
Poland	8		Argentina	1
China	7		Turkey	1
UK	7		Brasil	1
Germany	6		Ecuador	1
Australia	4		Columbia	1
Chile	4		Roemenia	1
Canada	4		Kyrgyzstan	1
Kazakhstan	4		Portugal	1
Netherlands	4		Iran	1
Austria	3		Oezbekistan	1
Oekraine	3		Ireland	1
Total				302

 

Men versus women

Climbing K2 at this moment is very much a male sport. Only 4 % of the succesful climbs have been accomplished by women. And the first 5 women that have reached the summit of K2, all died in the mountains (3 of them on K2 itself).

Oxygen usage

Up until now, 60 % of K2 climbers that reached the summit did not use supplementary oxygen. However, in the last couple of years this percentage has decreased from 73 % before 1990 to 48 % since 2000. Since a couple of years, the mountaineers that use supplementary oxygen on K2 are a majority.

Climbs per route

The graph below clearly shows that the most popular route on K2 is the SE ridge (Abruzzi Spur). The SSE ridge or Cesen route is a variation to the Abruzzi Spur that avoids the “Bill House Chimney” and the “Black Pyramid”.