Taming the ‘Savage Mountain’: How a team of Nepalese climbers claimed mountaineering’s last greatest prize
It's known as the 'Savage Mountain'. "It tries to kill you," said George Bell, an American climber, in 1953. Located on the China-Pakistan border, K2, the highest point of the Karakoram mountain range and the second-highest mountain in the world, is known as the deadliest of all; approximately one dies for every four who reach the summit.
The K2 was first conquered in 1954. But it remains one of the least climbed mountains in the world due to its dangerous climbing conditions. More people have been to space than have reached its summit and each of the six winter expeditions to reach the summit has ended in failure. Until January 16 this year, when a group of Nepalese mountaineers, led by Nirmal Purja, reached the summit of K2 in the harsh, unforgiving winter cold to claim mountaineering's last greatest feat.
An all-Nepalese team
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. For years, ever since Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary conquered the Everest, the Nepalese Sherpa people have assisted mostly wealthy western mountaineers in numerous glorified expeditions where their clients have claimed the prizes for themselves, rendering the Sherpas invisible. The Sherpas were never credited with first ascents, never given their due shares of credits.
Yet, when around noon on Saturday, 16 January, the team of ten climbers set foot on the apex of the gleaming, snow-covered 'Savage Mountain', they were all Nepalese. It was a summit of their own and the glory was only theirs to claim.
Their team leader, Nirmal "Nims" Purja, grew up in Nepal's flatlands and was a former Gurkha and British Special Forces soldier. He quit the military in 2018 and in 2019, he climbed all 14 8000-metre peaks in six months and six days, setting a new world record of mountaineering binge.
His team of bravehearts included Geljen Sherpa, Nirma's long time climbing companion, Mingma David Sherpa – famously known for rescuing 52 climbers from the slopes of Everest in 2016 and Mingma G, who climbed the Everest five times, K2 twice and was leading a separate team of Sherpa climbers.
The expedition
They started their ascend in mid-December. On December 26, Purja and his team packed their bags and tents and started their four-day rotation to high altitude. They climbed to 20,012 feet to set up Camp I. The next day, they went up to set up Camp II at 21,982 feet where they halted to set up a paltry shelter.
Meanwhile, Mingma G's team went up to 23,000 feet to set up Camp III and on December 28, they called for help to Nirmal's team. Four of his team were already too spent and decided to descent down to the base camp. But Nirmal and Mingma Tenzi pushed on to lend a hand. When they returned to the base camp after the first round, Nirmal had frostbitten fingers.
On January 5, the weather changed. Winds started blowing on the K2 slopes at speeds up to 96 km per hour. At the base camp, the climbers worried about their already set up camps. On January 10, when the weather cleared up, they reached Camp II to find out that their worst fears had come true.
The tents were gone. Along with them all the cooking gear, special clothing -- gloves, insoles and base layers and sleeping bags. There was no option for the climbers but to descend down to base camp to collect their backup gears. Luckily, Purja's mountaineering and military experience had prepared him for the worst.
On January 13, as the weather cleared up more, the climbers began their long, unrelenting foray into the unforgiving mountain. Carrying over 31 kgs of gear each, they climbed back up to Camp II, where they spent the night.
The next day, they climbed up to camp III at over 24,000 feet, traversing a section called the Black Pyramid and a deep chasm called the House Chimney. Setting up a base at Camp III, they went continued fixing lines up to Camp IV at 25,000 feet and once done, returned to Camp III where they would rest until Saturday, December 16.
At 2:30 AM local time on Saturday, the climbers began their final ascent to the summit. Under a spectacular starlit sky and in the brutal cold of -24 degree Celsius, the climbers started their journey to the top. The cold cut through their four layers of clothing, the wind blew snow into their eyes, hitting their face with needle-like sharpness and numbing their bodies. But they pressed on.
At 26,000 feet, the climbers reached a death zone known as the Bottleneck – an hourglass-shaped small passage running beneath an unstable overhanging ice cliff that routinely sheds of enormous blocks of ice, some as big as a house.
Nirmal Purja didn't carry a supplementary oxygen bottle for the final push and took a calculated risk to make the climb without additional oxygen. It paid off. By 3 PM, the climbers cleared the bottleneck and slowly marched toward the top, towards their final prize.
With about 10 minutes to go to reach the summit, the men did something incredible. They grouped together side by side, shoulder to shoulder, and just before 5 PM, they stepped up to the summit together, all singing the Nepali national anthem. "The first ascent of K2 in winter. No individual agendas, no individual greed but only solidarity and joint force of Team Nepal Flag of Nepal with a shared vision," wrote Nirmal later on his Twitter handle.
The mountains of Karakoram rising below them welcomed the climbers with a wintry view no one has ever seen before. Mountaineering's last greatest feat was achieved. K2 was summitted in the cold, unforgiving winter.
Nepal's greatest mountains were summitted first by foreigners while the Sherpas were treated nothing better than mules for their wealthy clients. K2's winter glory, therefore, was Nepal's own to claim. The children of mountains finally claimed the place where they always belonged. At the top.
Photos: Red Bull Content Pull/Reuters
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