The Everest season has officially wound down, and as the monsoon approaches, the focus switches away from the Himalaya for a few months, and onto the Karakorum, where ExWeb is reporting that teams are already starting to arrive on K2.
In fact, K2Climb.net has updated their expedition list to reflect the climbers that will be attempting to reach the summit on the second tallest mountain on Earth. Amongst the more familiar names are Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Veikka Gustafsson, and Dodo Kopold. Dutch climber Wilco van Rooijen and his team are already on the mountain, as he makes his third attempt at K2, without oxygen no less.
While K2 may rank second to Everest in height, it may rank second to none in challenge. The mountain is approximately 785 feet lower in altitude, but is generally considered orders of magnitude more challenging to climb, and more deadly as well. It's been dubbed the "Mountaineer's Mountain", and because of this it doesn't see nearly as much traffic as Everest does. It's more remote as well, making the trek to the mountain an adventure all it's own.
Over the next few weeks, we should see teams arriving in BC, setting up camp, and starting their siege on the mountain. Hopefully it'll be a successful year on K2, much like last year, and a safe one for the climbers.
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