11 climbers on K2 reported dead after an avalanche

I'll go for a walk but mountain climbing? I do not need to have a sport wear you need an oxygen mask.

but smart surfers rock.

Most large mountains have several names.
Considered the most dangerous and difficult of all climbs,
Kaytu, as it is called by the locals,
is *living* up to its other name,...
"The Savage Mountain".
I have been to the mountaintop.
The Gods do not want us there.
DO NOT GO.
The Admiral.

My heart and prayers go out to the victim's families but I'm with Sence - if I need an oxygen mask, I'll pass.

Sence wrote:

I'll go for a walk but mountain climbing? I do not need to have a sport wear you need an oxygen mask.
but smart surfers rock.

We'll soon see if the runners need oxygen masks while competing in the Beijing Olympics.

The Chinese stopped burning all the world's gasoline too late to clear their air.

Bless them; they stood at the highest place on Earth before transcending it...
Sence, Smart Surfers can spell!

Sence wrote:

I'll go for a walk but mountain climbing? I do not need to have a sport wear you need an oxygen mask.
but smart surfers rock.

Bless them; they stood at the highest place on Earth before transcending it...
'Sence', Smart Surfers can spell!

K2 is just a little smaller than Everest, but is much steeper and prone to avalanches. I once read that almost half the people who go to K2 don't come back. Plus it's in the middle of NOWHERE on the Pakistani-Chinese border. Professional climbers consider it harder than Everest. Only a handful of people have reached the summit and lived to tell about it.
I admire mountain climbers. Unfortunately, I'm too old and have had 2 back surgeries, so I guess climbing is out of the question for me. Thank you climbers who take cameras for the rest of us to see a little of what you get to experience.

Did Reinhold Meissner summit K2? I can't remember. I know he did the first summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen. Elite climbers often cite him as the greatest climber ever.

The climbing sport has now become an industry wherein dorks with money decide to show just what they can buy.

They buy guides, helocopters, assistants, porters, cooks, bottle washers, ass wipers, and nurse maids.

Looks like these dorks got more than they paid for.

Tough shit!

Mt. McKinley 1974

Reinhold has made the top of K2, and he did it a long time ago. FYO

In 1892, Martin Conway led a British expedition that could only reach up to 'Concordia' point of the Baltoro Glacier.[7] The first serious attempt to climb K2 was undertaken in 1902 by Oscar Eckenstein and Aleister Crowley via the Northeast Ridge, but after five serious and costly attempts, the team could only reach up to 6525 meters.[8] The failures are attributed to a combination of questionable physical training, personality conflicts, and poor weather conditions — of 68 days spent on K2 (at the time, the record for longest time spent at such an altitude) only eight provided clear weather.[9]

Dear FINELINE;

Pasting things about climbing, does not make you a climber, it makes you an ass.

Thanks Zandor. I thought RM had made K2, but I couldn't remember for sure. I have enormous respect for anyone who manages to sneak up on K2 and get away alive while the mountain is sleeping.
I don't think K2 is a mountain the wannabe's can "buy", like Everest and the other 8000 meter peaks. And that's the way it should be. Like Mallory said, climb it because it's there, not just to put a trophy picture on your stupid wall.
I would love to just SEE K2 and Everest. Climbing them is out of the question for me.

NorthernGirl wrote:

<quoted text>
Bless them; they stood at the highest place on Earth before transcending it...
'Sence', Smart Surfers can spell!

Nope.:-I

It had to be the most tragic event being there trying to rescue others, and have more events take lives. Unreal.
It's such surreal dedication of force beyond ones own ability.
I know what it's like being grabbed from the belt to be pulled off a cliff above water. Frozen solid and a reach too far to save myself. I never went there again.
So My Hats off to those who dared the extreme. I bet they made it this time.

what do I call a dozen mountain climbers killed in an avalanche? A damn good start, I hope there were some lawyers in that group.

It's a little difficult to feel sorry for people who take such unnecessary risks, just to make themselves feel good.

They've left so many behind, who are now so very upset, talk about selfish.

Surely at least one of them had heard of a Helicopter.

It's like going back to walking everywhere, when you have a perfectly good car.

I don't need to climb a mountain to know what's up there.

What a silly, unnecessary way, to lose your life.

strut2k wrote:

<quoted text>
We'll soon see if the runners need oxygen masks while competing in the Beijing Olympics.
The Chinese stopped burning all the world's gasoline too late to clear their air.

Sorry...but the US consumes more than 3x the oil that China does. China's pollution issues come from coal.

Zandor wrote:

The climbing sport has now become an industry wherein dorks with money decide to show just what they can buy.
They buy guides, helocopters, assistants, porters, cooks, bottle washers, ass wipers, and nurse maids.
Looks like these dorks got more than they paid for.
Tough shit!
Mt. McKinley 1974

You're so sweet.

Zandor wrote:

Dear FINELINE;
Pasting things about climbing, does not make you a climber, it makes you an ass.

OH!!! Did I say I was a climber???? Just trying to give some information.

And what have you being smoking??????