Climbers share spine chilling experience of successful K2 summit in winter

A team of sherpas set a new record for climbing the world’s second tallest K2 mountain in winters paving new achievements in the field of mountaineering on January 16. The team climbed the 28,251-foot summit located in Pakistan’s part of the Karakoram range which was never ascended before due to extremely rugged terrain, chilling temperature and speedy winds that require expertise in technical climbing. It’s a savage mountain, an American mountaineer that climbed the peak in August 1953 told Kathmandu Post. 

Climbers share experience

K2 was climbed by a group of 10 sherpas including Nirmal Purja, a former Gurkha and the UK special forces member. He had previously set a record for climbing all 14 8,000-metre-plus peaks. "History made for mankind, History made for Nepal!", Nirmal “Nims” Purja wrote in a social media post. 

“It was one of the hardest pushes ever. There had been close calls where team members nearly turned around due to extreme cold. But everyone was pushing themselves to the edge of their limits for a purpose; a common goal, to make the K2 winter happen, to make the last greatest mountaineering challenge happen, with positive power and honour,” Purja wrote on his Facebook page.

According to the accounts of the previous climbers, reaching the top of the mighty rugged snowy peak situated between Pakistan and China is a "killer feat". A climber narrated spine chilling experience of his ascent in 1954 calling the expedition the toughest and most dangerous to climb. The mountain experiences fast 200km per hour gushing chilled winds and has harsh weather conditions and a temperature that goes as low as -60C.

K2 requires stark skills

K2 requires stark technical skills as compared to Mount Everest and other high altitude mountains as it is prone to deadly avalanches. Thus far, only 367 are known to have climbed the dangerous mountain while as many as 4,000 have climbed Mt. Everest according to the NatGeo’s tally. The team braved strong chilly winds and temperatures that dipped below -58 degrees Fahrenheit while climbing the Abruzzi Spur on the mountain’s southern side. 

A 'special moment' for the team

Secretary of Pakistan's Alpine Club Karrar Haideri admired the team’s achievement as he told Euronews that the 10 Nepali Sherpas wrote history in golden words by climbing K2 as it was never done by anyone before in winter. Website of Nirmal Purja called it “a very special moment”.  According to a statement released by one of the team members on their official website, the group reached the peak that lies in the Pakistani side of the Himalayan range, stands tall at 8,611 meters, at around 5 pm as they fixed ropes on the upper top of the mountain and valiantly hopped on the summit. The expedition was led by Purja in close coordination with another member Mingma G Sherpa ho combined their strategies and hit the peak together.

"All 13x8000 peaks have been climbed in winter by our international climbing community so it would be a great feat for the Nepali climbing community to make history", Purja tweeted from the mountain’s base camp. Once they made history, the mountaineering team sang the Nepali national anthem and rejoiced together. The members were Dawa Temba Sherpa, Dawa Tenjin Sherpa, and Kilu Pemba Sherpa. Mingma David Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, Geljen Sherpa, Pem Chiri Sherpa among others. 

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[Team of 10 sherpas that made it to K2. Credit: Twitter/@mukkipathan]

[Nirmal Purja. Credit: twitter/@RONBupdates]

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