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2008 K2 disaster


Coordinates: 35°52′57″N 76°30′48″E / 35.8825°N 76.5133°E / 35.8825; 76.5133

The 2008 K2 disaster occurred on 1 August 2008, when 11 mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. The series of deaths, over the course of the Friday ascent and Saturday descent, was the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering. Some of the specific details remain uncertain, with different plausible scenarios having been given about different climbers' timing and actions, when reported later via survivors' eyewitness accounts or via radio communications of climbers who died (sometimes minutes) later in the course of events on K2 that day.

K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth, after Mount Everest, with a peak elevation of 8,611 metres (28,251 ft). K2 is part of the Karakoram range, not far from the Himalayas, and is located on the border between the Pakistani Gilgit-Baltistan region, and China's Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang Autonomous Region. It is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging than Everest, and is statistically the second most dangerous mountain in the world in terms of fatality per summit.


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