Adventure Magazine

KARAKORAM
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Making history
K2 IN WINTER
Nepalese climber Nirmal 'Nims' Purja MBE made history on January 16, 2021, at 5pm local
time when the former Gurkha and UK Special Forces operative and his team became the first
mountaineers to ever summit K2 in winter.
With a plan to complete all 14 eight-thousand metre summits in seven months, Nims summited
the first mountain on 23 April 2019 and completed Project Possible 14/7 six months later with a
successful summit on 29 October using supplemental oxygen. Project possible has now been made
into a Netflx documentary called 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible...
But K2 is altogether different beast... Standing 8,611m above sea level, K2 is the second highest
peak, dwarfed only by Mount Everest, and the only 8,000m peak in the world that had never been
climbed during winter with attempts on the mountain normally made in July or August, during the
warmest periods.
Although previously only attempted in the summer months, K2 has one of the deadliest records,
killing one climber for every four who succeed in reaching its summit. In winter the odds of survival
are even less. Since the first attempt in 1954, 87 climbers have perished on its slopes and only 377
have successfully reached the summit.
The extra challenges that winter brings are winds of up to 200km per hour and temperatures as
low as minus 60oC. Climbers have to navigate nearly sheer rock faces rising 80 degrees, while
avoiding frequent and unpredictable avalanches. There are numerous natural hurdles including the
Black Pyramid and the deadliest part of the climb, the Bottleneck, a steep gully ridges with columns
of glacial ice prone to collapsing. It was here that 11 people lost their lives in 2008, when one of the
ridges broke free sending an avalanche into the group of climbers. None survived.
However, the descent is where most of the deaths (85%) happen because climbers use all their
energy reaching the summit and leave no reserves.
Only eight expeditions have attempted a winter ascent, but Nims and his crew are the first to reach
the summit.
The full list of those who summitted K2 in winter is: Nirmal Purja (Team Nimsdai), Mingma David
Sherpa (Team Nimsdai), Mingma Tenzi Sherpa (Team Nimsdai), Geljen Sherpa (Team Nimsdai),
Pem Chiri Sherpa (Team Nimsdai), Dawa Temba Sherpa (Team Nimsdai), Mingma G (Team
Mingma G), Dawa Tenzing Sherpa (Team Mingma G), Kilu Pemba Sherpa (Team Mingma G) and
Sona Sherpa (Team SST).
Here is what the 37-year-old had to say about the team's extraordinary feat:
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