
Scaling the World’s Most Lethal Mountain in the Dead of Winter - ilamont
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/sports/polish-climbers-to-scale-deadly-k2-peak-in-winter.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
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doug1001
> "This is the way of the Polish climbers, who for reasons of history and
> culture have earned reputations as the greatest climbers of the Himalayas in
> winter"

take nothing away from the Poles, they've earned their reputation as the
masters of winter climbing in the Himalaya; however the reasons why are
mundane. Beginning in the 1960's, the Polish Teams were too poor to afford
climbing permits for the pre-Monsoon season. Getting a permit for a winter
climb of an 8,000 metre peak is far less expensive.

in other words, the Poles began climbing in the Himalaya in Winter because
that's the only season they could afford to climb.

~~~
skookum
The reasons the Poles began climbing the Himalaya in winter were partly due to
having the relevant experience from the Tatras and partly due to politics. In
the age when the major Himalayan peaks were first climbed (the 50s and 60s)
Polish climbers were not able to leave Poland for such trips. When the
political situation started softening, there was a collective desire to put
Poland on the climbing map. Since the obvious firsts on the 8000m peaks were
no longer up for grabs, their attention turned to other variations: winter
ascents, new routes, and alpine-style ascents.

To claim the reasons were "mundane" is to massively underplay their vision and
achievements. The leading Polish climbers of the 1980s were in the vanguard of
the fast & light alpinism movement - up until then virtually all Himalayan
climbing was done expedition-style. One of this group - Jerzy Kukuczka - was
the second person ever to summit all the 8000m peaks, most of them via new
routes or in winter and mostly in alpine-style ascents. The new route he put
up K2 was previously deemed unclimbable by Reinhold Messner and has never been
repeated.

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skookum
For those who find this article interesting, I highly recommend the book
Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonald ([https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-
Climbers-Bernadette-McDonald/...](https://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Climbers-
Bernadette-McDonald/dp/1926855604/)). It tells the story of the core group of
Polish climbers who did the first ascents of most of the 8000m peaks in
winter, many via alpine-style ascents and new routes.

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theparanoid
K2 is so much more difficult in winter because of its northerly latitude. Most
8000m peaks are ~27N. K2 is 35N.

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camperman
Just a nitpick on an otherwise excellent piece: Annapurna is actually the most
lethal mountain in the world, just ahead of K2. It claims 34 deaths per 100
safe returns over K2's 29.

To climb K2 in winter is extraordinarily dangerous. It's dangerous enough in
season. But the Poles are the hardest of hard men in these situations - good
luck to them!

~~~
paulcole
To nitpick your nitpick-- there are different metrics for deadliness. By sheer
volume of deaths, Mont Blanc might be on top with 6,000-8,000 (estimated).

~~~
camperman
Sheer volume is meaningless unless we know how many times it's been
successfully summitted. Mont Blanc is dangerous because it's easily accessible
to lay people and despite being advertised as a 'long walk' can turn deadly
very quickly.

Annapurna on the other hand has been climbed less than two hundred times in
history, all of those people were elite mountaineers and further third of them
didn't make it back.

~~~
nimchimpsky
Wasn't a large proportion due to one avalanche though ?

That's equally misleading imo.

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donquichotte
Ah, Polish adventurers!

One of my all-time favourite threads on ADVrider.com (motorcycle touring
website) is about a group of Polish bikers traveling through Afghanistan in
2009. They have stunning photos:

[http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/afghanistan-ride-
how-t...](http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/afghanistan-ride-how-to-enter-
survive-and-return-in-one-piece.504942/)

~~~
slumberlust
Wow! What a thread.

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podiki
For those interested I recommend the movie K2: Siren of the Himalayas (2014).
It is a very nice documentary, giving the history of the mountain and up close
look at an attempt to summit it. Really amazing stuff.

From the description (via Rotten Tomatoes):

"This breathtaking film follows an historic attempt to summit the world's most
challenging peak on the 100-year anniversary of the Duke of Abruzzi's landmark
K2 expedition in 1909. World-class alpinists Fabrizio Zangrilli and Gerlinde
Kaltenbrunner team up with veteran climbers Jake Meyer and Chris Szymiec in a
dangerous foray of high altitude mountaineering. The documentary also examines
the history and geography of the Karakoram mountains while contemplating the
risks, rewards and personal nature of exploration in an age when there are few
blank spots left on the map. The second highest peak on Earth at 8,611 meters,
K2 is also one of the most dangerous mountains to climb: for every four people
who have reached the summit of K2, one person has died trying. (C) First Run"

~~~
theparanoid
Another favorite Himalayan documentary is "Meru (2015)" [0]. One of the
climbers ended up marrying the producer/director.

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meru_(film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meru_\(film\))

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RcouF1uZ4gsC
It seems that the possibility of death plays a large part in the appeal of
something like this. This makes me wonder in the future if we will have VR
games that will actually kill you if you fail.

~~~
blizkreeg
I'm assuming you meant this but wanted to put it out there - it is not the
possibility of death that is the appeal, it is the possibility of cheating
death. Small but essential difference.

~~~
tim333
Having done a bit of risky mountain stuff I quite like the modest risk of
dying doing it. Part of my rationalization is you're going to die some day and
doing it Bond movie style might be more interesting than Alzheimer's in a
hospice. It's also a bit of an FU to the government forcing you to scan your
shoes at airports and such like to prevent the 1E-10 chance of you leaving the
party early.

~~~
nf05papsjfVbc
Though I despise security theatre as much as the next bloke, I'd say the
governments' intentions here are to keep you from making others leave the
party early (or at least to give an appearance that they are doing their bit
in this regard).

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ensiferum
Great story. For anyone interested in having a sample and to test yourself a
bit I can recommend Kilimanjaro. It's very touristy but it'll definitely make
you push yourself to beyond what you think are your physical limits.

~~~
DamnYuppie
Along the same lines I would recommend Aconcagua. It isn't really touristy, it
is a trail hike for all intense and purposes as it is not at all technical.

~~~
ghaff
It's about 3,500 feet higher though which is a fair bit when you get into that
range. I'm not sure I would say "not at all technical." Depending on the
current conditions there could be snow and ice (and may be easier if there
is).

And "intents and purposes" :-)

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mceoin
_" The Katowice club overlooked Frédéric Chopin Street; its coat of arms is an
eagle and an ice pick. Many dozens of climbers each night talked mountains,
life, and more mountains, and sang songs and drank vodka. To gain admission at
that time, a young climber had to demonstrate technical prowess, sleep outside
on a mountain ledge (known as a bivouac), pass written tests and show a
command of mountaineering history, art and literature."_

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rangibaby
My favorite book about K2 is "Surviving K2" by Wilco Van Rooijen, a survivor
of the 2008 K2 disaster. The doco "The Summit" from 2012 was good too.

