Nearly 1,400 foreign mountaineers are planning to summit Pakistan’s towering peaks this climbing season, 100 of which have set their sights on the world’s second-highest mountain — the 9,611m high K2.
Gilgit-Baltistan’s Minister of Tourism, Raja Nasir Ali Khan, called it “a record number”.
Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, Karrar Haidri, revealed that there are 57 scheduled expeditions for 23 summits this season and 370 climbers are eyeing to conquer ‘the savage mountain’ K2. He said that the K2 climbers this year include 90 women, two of which are Pakistanis who are determined to become the country’s first to scale it.
This peak is technically more difficult to climb than Everest because of unpredictable weather conditions, and only 425 people have successfully scaled it since 1954.
Russian climber, Oxana Morneva, is heading a team on the mountain after failing in 2012 because of a knee injury and a broken rope due to falling rocks. She said she had no doubts about returning and continuing on her mission.
Pakistan is home to five of 14 mountains in the world that are higher than 8,000 m, and climbing all of them is a mountaineer’s ultimate achievement. Around 200 climbers will attempt to scale the 8,051 m Broad Peak and a similar number will try to climb Gasherbrum-I (8,080 m) and Gasherbrum-II (8,035 m).
Kristin Harila, a 36-year-old Norwegian climber, is also keen to reach the world’s 14 highest mountain summits in record time. She has already climbed seven peaks that measure 8,000 meters and she intends to either match or beat Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja’s record of six months and six days.
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