Monday, March 1, 2010

I'm not sure I would even try this climb...

This is an incredible video I found on YouTube that shows a team of mountaineers as they proceed to climb beyond Camp 4 on the Abruzzi Ridge on K2. They have exited the shoulder and are getting the near the point of having to navigate the leftward traverse past the bottleneck. A missed step here will cost you your life.

If you watch the video, notice the office-building sized serac that hangs overhead as they spend about 5 hours climbing underneath, trying to get clear in case part of it shears off the face. This is actually how 11 climbers died last year on K2.

I'm all about climbing an 8 thousand meter peak, and hope to do it one day, but this vid reinforces my previously held opinion that K2 is just too dangerous.

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