This article first appeared on http://www.icelandreview.com . The original can be read here .
by Ragnar Tómas
Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri Sigurjónsson is currently hoping to become the first person in history to ascend K2 during winter. “One understands why no one has been able to summit the mountain in wintertime,” John Snorri revealed in a conversation with Iceland Review.
The World’s Most Dangerous Mountain
Situated on the border of China and Pakistan, K2 is the world’s second-highest mountain standing at 8,611 meters. Besides being considered the most dangerous mountain in the world (for every four people who reach the summit, one person, on average, dies), K2 is also the only 8,000-metre peak that has never been summited during winter. Icelandic mountaineer John Snorri, alongside his team, aims to be the first to conquer K2 in winter.
Slow Going
Departing from Iceland on January 3, John Snorri reached K2 base camp on January 22, along with fellow climbers Mingma G. from Nepal, Gao Li from China, and Tomaz Rotar from Slovenia. Other supporting climbers will include Tamting Sherpa of Nepal, Phur Galjenn of Nepal, Passang Namke Sherpa of Nepal, and Sirbaz Khan of Pakistan.
As reported on Apricot Tours , it took John Snorri’s team three days to travel from Concordia, the confluence of the mighty Baltoro Glacier and the Godwin-Austen Glacier, to K2 base camp owing to bad snow conditions – a trek that normally takes seven hours. As John Snorri wrote last week on Instagram:
“The whole team has finally reached K2 base camp after [nine] days on the Baltoro glacier. We have been establishing our camp in -27°C. Tomorrow is a resting day. [W] are all tired after tough days. Friday we will start our first rotation. Up to ABC through the icefall. We need to set a safe rout[e] up.”
Unforgiving Conditions
In an online conversation with Iceland Review yesterday, John Snorri revealed that conditions on the mountain were unforgiving:
“We’re at base camp. We fixed ropes to Camp 1 yesterday. This weekend’s forecast is good, and so we plan on sleeping at Camp 1 and fixing ropes to Camp 2. The mountain is covered in ice, and there is little respite to be found. The temperature is 20 to 35 degrees below zero, and, more often than not, quite windy. I feel good. The sherpas have been complaining a little as they aren’t used to the cold; the winters in Nepal are warmer than the winters in Pakistan. It’s a difficult climb; one understands why no one has been able to summit in winter before.”