Ot: Rip k2 11

[SimonM]

Anyone who has seen the cover of the New York Times or who has seen the front page of Wikipedia today knows that 11 brave mountaineers died descending from the peak of the second largest mountain in the world. My heartfelt condolences extend to all the family and friends of these mountaineers. I think that special mention should be made of Jehan Baig of Turkey who died trying to recover the body of one of his fallen compatriots and of Pasang Bhote of Nepal and Gerard McDonnell of Ireland, both of whom died attempting to save the lives of others in their party.

[Lucas]

I have not seen this story. Is this to say all members of the party died? Or did some make it down safely?

[SimonM]

I believe some people in the party survived although I am unsure. 11 died.

[Lucas]

Dude that is heavy....

[SimonM]

That it is. Mountaineering is one of the most dangerous sports in the world and one of the most rewarding, still it does well to remember the risks in the activity.

[Oso]

yea, heavy risk indeed.

i'm not sure about the scene on K2 but there have been articles on Everest I think and how reckless people are becoming in the quest to summit.

[SimonM]

From what I can tell they were on a part of K2 that is a narrow gorge (called the Bottleneck) when an avalanche caused a serac (big chunk of ice) to fall through their area, severing their safety ropes.

In other words it was a worst case scenario; I have not seen anything yet to suggest recklessness on the part of the climbers.

According to Wikipedia the bottleneck has an angling of 80-90 degrees.

That means it combines the most dangerous features of both a gorge and a vertical cliff face. It's got significant exposure to seracs it's 8200 meters above sea level and is the usual path of ascent and descent for climbers reaching the summit.