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There has been a lot of talk recently about whether K2 will become the next Everest. Following this seasons tragic avalanche that killed 12 sherpas on Everest, more attention has been given to the second-highest mountain on Earth, K2. In just one weekend in July, 30 climbers summited the 28,251-foot mountain. However, within the climbing community people point to the fact that K2 is a vastly different mountain than Everest with more technical climbing, incredibly unpredictable weather, frequent avalanches, and a variety of other obstacles that make K2 simply too difficult for the vast majority of Everest climbers to consider.
Kraig Becker, writing for The Adventure Blog, had this to say in an article entitled K2 Is Not The ‘Next Everest’.
“Now that the summer climbing season is over in Pakistan, and the teams have packed up all of their belongings and headed home, there has been some time to assess the level of success that was seen in the Himalaya and Karakoram over the past few weeks. While it was a typical year throughout much of the region, teamss on K2 found unprecedented success, with as many as 40 climbers reaching the summit. This has led to some discussion in the mountaineering community that K2 has now gone the way of Everest, and will soon be crowded with commercial teams looking to make a profit by leading rich clients to the top. I’ve even seen a well known blog ask if K2 had been “tamed” at long last. While it is true that K2 saw more successful summits than in any single season in the past, it was due to the perfect alignment of weather more than anything else. And if you want to know if the “Savage Mountain” has been tamed, just ask the climbers who were there. They’ll tell you that K2 is still amongst the toughest climbs on the planet, and incredibly dangerous even in the best of conditions.”
Kraig Becker goes on to say, “I guess it should be expected that some in the mountaineering community would question whether or not K2 has somehow gotten easier after 40 people manage to reach its summit. There are some that want to see it remain the “Mountaineer’s Mountain,” which boasts a death rate of 25%. Personally, I don’t think K2 is in any danger of losing that title at the moment, it is just due to some unique circumstances that so many climbers were able to top out. There were similar circumstances in 2012 that allowed a large group to summit then as well, but last year there were no successful summits at all. And following the tragedy of 2008, during which 11 people lost their lives, it took three seasons before anyone reached the top again.” Keep reading @ K2 Is Not The ‘Next Everest’
K2 climbing routes