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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Jul 19, 2017 - 05:38pm PT
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Actually some of the companies guiding on K2 this year are Sherpa owned and staffed. They made the decision to take the risks. I know some of them personally and their motivation was the challenge, not just the money, the same motivation for the numerous Sherpas who climbed Denali this year and the one non Sherpa Nepali who died up there. It's interesting to me that climbers who justify solo ascents of El Cap and wing suit flying think that others should not take risks?
Risk averse Sherpas work as guides in Europe instead, and there are dozens I know who do that.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jul 19, 2017 - 08:17pm PT
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BVB for the win...
...alpine roulette...
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jul 19, 2017 - 08:42pm PT
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such climbers have more money than experience If yet they succeed, in masses, then it appears the bar is still too low. What is needed, then, is an objective that kills a bunch of these people. I'm looking forward to the stories, myself. K2 sounds perfect.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 19, 2017 - 09:10pm PT
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K2 is just following in a long list of proud peaks brought low by man:
Mont Blanc, Matterhorn, Mt Whitney, Lembert Dome, etc.
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Nick Danger
Ice climber
Arvada, CO
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Jul 20, 2017 - 07:08am PT
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I think Reilly's original post about the Taliban is most prescient. There is a very real anti-American undercurrent within Pakistani society, which is growing more generally anti-western as this whole Jihadi mindset roils the Middle East and Asia Minor. How can this NOT have an ugly outcome in the fullness of time?
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crankster
Trad climber
No. Tahoe
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Jul 20, 2017 - 07:13am PT
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K2 is fine, as is Matterhorn. Exactly how much does it effect your life if a few more people a year stand on K2's summit? Serial complainers...
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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Jul 20, 2017 - 07:15am PT
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How can this NOT have an ugly outcome in the fullness of time?
If we stopped destabilizing/destroying countries around the world, and stopped supporting terrorists around the world with $$$, weapons, supplies, training... That'd be a good start.
Great shots of K2 by that drone.. amazing it could fly at all at that altitude.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 20, 2017 - 07:25am PT
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Any additional income for the wonderful Balti people is fine with me. Not to worry....there are numerous peaks visible from K2 that are too technical for most K2 guides to climb, let alone guide.
None of the 8,000 meter peaks, K2 included, are among the most difficult summits in the world to reach.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jul 20, 2017 - 08:00am PT
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Not one bit.
Well, it wouldn't affect you if yer neighbor's son on a SEAL team has to go rescue some kidnapped entitled wannabe alpinists and his chopper crashes?
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 20, 2017 - 08:11am PT
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The K2 region is in Baltistan which, to my mind, is a perfectly safe and wonderful area to visit.
The approach to Nanga Parbar, on the other hand, is accessible to the Sunni Tribal areas and is not safe.
When it comes to Pakistan you have to parse it out.....some areas are safe, some aren't.
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Stewart Johnson
Mountain climber
lake forest
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Jul 20, 2017 - 08:38am PT
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Swing a cat
Hit a guide
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aspendougy
Trad climber
Los Angeles, CA
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Jul 20, 2017 - 09:15am PT
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Time keep changing. Before you know it, we will have sky car type vehicles that can park you on top, you take a few photos and fly back to your hotel. Many of us will be reincarnated in other bodies by then, continuing to pursue samskaric shadow pleasures of some kind or other.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Denver CO
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Jul 20, 2017 - 02:57pm PT
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I have tons of Pakistani friends and never once have any of them blamed me for US govt policies. Although I guess if you mention "drones" they would probably think of CIA assassinations rather than adventure sports photography, lol.
I just stumble my way through dangerous areas. I traveled with some combat photographers and journalists in Colombia and realize this is what a lot of news reporters do. That would be a very cool career, foreign newspaper correspondent, but its too late for me.
I went across the Kyber Pass, Jalalabad, Kabul, to Herat. The Afghan himalayas are massive too, but always off limits because of Taliban and land mines. It would be great to explore them by video drone, but with the war going on the military might not like it. On the other hand you can bribe anyone in Afghanistan for only a few dollars, and they expect it.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 20, 2017 - 03:38pm PT
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I have climbed in Argentina during a coup, Peru when the "Shinning Path" was at it's peak, Iran under the Mullahs, and Pakistan but there are a number of areas in American cities where you won't see me after nightfall.
The Karakoram Highway is about as dangerous as riding a bike down Boulder Canyon or a motorcycle on the LA Freeway.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jul 20, 2017 - 04:49pm PT
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Just be careful about buying what this guy is selling!
I doubt K2 will turn into much of an Everest scene. More dangerous, less "prestige" outside of core climber circles and traveling in Pakistan is a lot different than Nepal.
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rbord
Boulder climber
atlanta
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Jul 20, 2017 - 04:56pm PT
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It's probably too late for me to get bent out of shape about all those other humans sullying the awesomeness of my hypothetical K2 ascent, but still, I bleed for the dignity of the mountain! Yea, sure I do. :-)
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Jul 20, 2017 - 05:29pm PT
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The dignity of the mountain is assured, the dignity of people in reference to it might be in question. K2, our name for it, is massive and far more beautiful than Everest. The Himalays are growing....the beauty there is that K2 will be even more massive when there won't be any humans left to refer to it as K2. In geologic time, that is just around the corner.
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rbord
Boulder climber
atlanta
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Jul 20, 2017 - 05:51pm PT
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We'll see. IMHO, the dignity of the mountain and the dignity of the humans are part of the same dignity, and our sense of those dignities says more about us than about them. I wonder if K2 knows that it's more beautiful than Everest, the way that we (in our dignity) know? IMHO, the difference is that our beliefs and comments about the mountain's dignity don't affect the mountain's behavior the way they affect humans' behavior.
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Stewart Johnson
Mountain climber
lake forest
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Jul 20, 2017 - 08:43pm PT
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Maybe
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Jan
Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
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Jul 20, 2017 - 10:34pm PT
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The local name for K2 is Chogori. it comes from the Tibetan language and Buddhism which prevailed in the area before the Muslim conquest.
Cho = God
Go = door
Ri = mountain
In English we would probably translate it as "Doorway to Heaven".
It seems to touch Heaven and it truly has been the way to the afterlife, for many who aspired to climb it.
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