From Deseret News archives:
Pakistan, climbers mark 50 years since K-2 climb
Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni first scaled K-2, the world's second-highest mountain, on July 31, 1954. Compagnoni's grandson, Michele, reached the summit along with four other climbers. Four other people from a Spanish team — including Edurne Pasaban, the sixth woman ever — also summited Monday, according to Naiknam Karim of Adventure Tours Pakistan.
They were the first climbers to reach the top of K-2 in three years.
Pakistan kicked off its three-week celebration of the K-2 Golden Jubilee earlier this month with an opening ceremony in Islamabad. Lacedelli, now 78, trekked back to K-2 base camp for a ceremony and banquet, but has since headed back to Italy.
Over 1,350 trekkers from 22 countries have come for the festivities, Secretary of Tourism Jalil Abbas said.
Nestled in the northern regions of Pakistan, home to five of the world's 14 tallest peaks, K-2 is so remote it is not visible from any inhabited place. It takes four or five days of hiking, or a 90-minute helicopter flight, to get to base camp.
The mountain's seclusion is part of its allure, according to Ashraf Aman, who in 1977 became the first Pakistani to climb K-2. "This mountaineering is a holy job. The mountaineers, they are the prophets," Aman said. "You can get to see the light of God in the mountains."
Before this week, there had been 189 summits of K-2 and over 50 deaths — about half during descents of the mountain. That makes K-2's ratio of fatalities to successful summits about 27 percent.
Everest has had nearly 2,000 summits with about 180 deaths, a fatality ratio of about 9 percent. Nepal's Annapurna, the world's deadliest mountain, has had 130 successful summits and 53 deaths, giving it a summit to fatality ratio of about 41 percent.
This year, K-2 already has been struck by tragedy. In June, three South Koreans climbers died in an avalanche, and five Pakistani porters drowned while crossing a river.
Preparations are under way for a mountaineering museum, to be opened Thursday in Skardu, the last village on the route to K-2, some 175 miles from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. A photo exhibition of K-2 panoramas, which is opening at the Italian Embassy in Islamabad on July 28, will be moved to the museum in Skardu.
Mountaineering is the largest part of Pakistan's tourism industry, Abbas said. Of the $600,000 of tourism revenue generated annually, $460,000 is from mountaineering.
In honor of the anniversary and to encourage more people to attempt K-2 — particularly foreigners — fees for climbing the mountain have been cut in half, to $6,000 per team.
Climbing, Abbas said, is a positive way for Pakistan to improve relations with the rest of the world. "It helps us to recognize a common bond," he said.
On the Net: K-2 Climb: www.k2climb.net; Italian team: www.montagna.org
