[K2 on a calm day. PHOTO: Field Touring Alpine]

South African mountaineer and filmmaker Sean Wisedale is in the second week of his attempt to climb K2, the world’s second highest mountain, and one that has earned a deadly reputation with a claimed 26.77% summit/fatality ratio.

Mountaineers call K2 the “The Savage Mountain”. It is a far more difficult prospect than Everest because of a lack of infrastructure such as fixed ropes and sherpas, and its unpredictable weather. And because of this, it’s become the “mountaineer’s mountain”, the Holy Grail that will prove your credentials as a hard-core climber.

[Living high. PHOTO: Field Touring Alpine]

This climbing season sees four expeditions to the 8611m-high pyramid of rock, ice and snow in the heart of the Karakorum range in Pakistan. Wisedale is a member of the Field Alpine Touring expedition.

Wisedale lists some of the considerable dangers facing climbers on K2: “Storms and high winds, snow conditions, rock fall, crevasses, avalanches, physical and mental fatigue, malnutrition and dehydration, hypothermia and frostbite, high altitude pulmonary and cerebral oedema … Before I left home, I realised that K2 is – simply put – a game of calculated Russian roulette.”

Wisedale’s first rule is this: “K2 will kill you if you make one mistake.” The mountain has already claimed its first victim this climbing season, when Italian climber Michele Fait was killed during a ski descent last week. Last year, 11 climbers died on the mountain in a single day.

[A hairy traverse. PHOTO: Field Touring Alpine]

The first attempt on K2 was made in 1902. Fifty-two years and many deaths later, Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were the first to stand on K2’s summit, on July 31, 1954 . Since then 299 people have made it to the top. Not all of them made it home.

This week, Wisedale saw with his own eyes what kind of power the mountain dishes out. He writes, “Yesterday was one of the most outstanding alpine days of my life. It was sloughing and shedding time! Off all the surrounding slopes, avalanches dropped like over ripe litches in December. Throughout the day I was on standby with my camera, ready to roll and I picked off the prize fruit. One monster avalanche started at about 7500m altitude, hundreds of tons of ice and snow lost gravity, exploding into a bellowing cloud that advanced aggressively towards our camp. The cook staff in the background became very nervous and their voices grew louder as a 300 meter wide and high plume of grey and white ice crystals obliterated everything within its reach.”

To follow Wisedale’s progress – and wish him bon chance in his fantastically brave endeavour – click here.

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