9 Climbers Feared Dead In K-2 Avalanche

Three Others Missing On World's Second-Tallest Mountain

(AP)  A Pakistani tour operator says nine climbers are feared to have died in an avalanche after scaling the world's second-highest mountain, K-2.

Nazir Sabir says 22 climbers, mostly foreigners, reached K-2's summit Saturday but an ice avalanche struck them during their descent.

He says nine of the mountaineers are feared to have died and three others are missing. His Alpine Club of Pakistan organized a Serbian expedition on the mountain.

Sabir says a Serbian climber is among the nine feared dead.

K-2 is 28,250 feet tall, about 785 feet shorter than the world's highest peak, Mount Everest. But climbers generally regard K-2 as a more difficult peak to conquer.

[pirmin3]

Ya pays ur money and ya takes ur chances.

[nothappyatall]

"A Pakistani tour operator says nine climbers are feared to have died in an avalanche "

FEARED? why ''feared''?? it''s their azzes that are dead not ours! they are either dead or they aren''t, ''fearing'' isn''t going to change that!

[gheemaster38]

Death and destruction is all in the game!!

I''d rather spend my spare time on a beach somewhere drinkin'' Blue Hawaiians & Tiquila Sunrises, then trying to huff it up some cold a$$ mountain.

[voicemania]

Ha Ha Mother Nature rules!

[heuristic1]

Commentators on this board so far are a bunch of a ssoles. Stick your Tiquila Sunrises and beers up your a$$.

[whiskyrokkr]

I agree these people are living on the edge also. I do hope these people do not die under several feet of snow.

[petesis]

I have been following this for three days. They were above a narrow section called the Bottleneck Couloir which traverses beneath a huge hanging glacier. It was reported that they had fixed ropes through the bottleneck and the avalanche took out the ropes. It did not say the climbers were swept off but it suggested they were stuck above, near the summit. I couldn''t understand why no one would try to come down without the ropes as to stay is certain death. (It has been climbed many times without ropes). That is well over 8000 meters above Sea Level. Very high. And very cold. That is way too high to survive for any length of time. This is a terrible thing.

[marshall_nee]

''Savage mountain''
Indeed.

[lovesamerica]

When I go on vacation I always hope that I at least get to my destination and have a good time. That if the fates decide it is my time, get me on the way home...congratulations to them for reaching their goal,making it to the top,against an angry mountain,physical strains and I am sure lots of cash. they died doing what they loved...bless them

[cbsfan73]

These people are trying to overcome internal insecurities by "conquering" a mountain.

There is also the egotistical (bragging rights) aspect of it. Imagine if nobody was around to witness or hear the climber''s testament. The climbers would never bother climbing the mountain. It would all be pointless.

[petesis]

What would you know about Egotistical I wonder? And as for bragging rights? Do not assume that which would perhaps motivate you motivates others. The people that do this sort of thing are a different breed and you sitting at your computer should probably not attempt to assume anything about them.

[cbsfan73]

I wonder how many of these special breeds would risk their lives saving the poor or fighting a tyrannical government.

Must people put disturb everything? Have people not learned that they do not need to put their print on everything?

Why did the man climb the mountain? Because it was there.

[mainemade]

Mother Nature will always win when she wants to get angry.
These climbers, just like all the other misguided thrill seekers before them (personal opinion) knew the risks going in. They knew they may not make it out alive. At least they died doing something they loved. Cause you got to Love it to do it.

[cbsfan73]

mainemade wrote:
"They knew they may not make it out alive. At least they died doing something they loved. Cause you got to Love it to do it."

Does this mean that people should go out and have promiscuous *** (we all know there is a risk) because we love doing it?

Giggity Giggity Goo...

[thgdriver]

mainemade Made my point already. All I can add is I hope nobody else gets dead or injured looking for the thrill seeking fools. The story did not say if they were heads of their family''s. If they had wives, kids, then they were selfish to boot!

[cbsfan73]

thgdriver wrote:
"All I can add is I hope nobody else gets dead or injured looking for the thrill seeking fools. The story did not say if they were heads of their family''''s. If they had wives, kids, then they were selfish to boot!"

Yeah, the same goes for promiscuous s.e.x.

[ubrew12]

I''ve climbed Mt Whitney with my daughter, and backpacked much of the Sierra Nevada. I''m too old to tackle K2, and now never will, but have seen enough to be able to say: in their short years, these people lived a lifetimes worth. That will never be understood by the many Puritans clogging these messages. But, it doesn''t matter, because they don''t matter. God gave them the chance to see for themselves Gods perfectly beautiful [yet perfectly cruel] creation. And they gave it a pass.

Here''s to those who would never pass up the chance to see God''s creation! Not for any page of the Bible.

[haoli25]

Look for them in the Spring.

I was both climber and expedition head for the International K2 expedition in 1992 with elite climbers from Mexico, Sweden and New Zealand. I am the first Mexican and Latin American to summit Mt. Everest and to complete the Seven Summits Grand Slam and on that expedition were with me Gary Ball and Rob Hall, amongst others.
My direct climbing partner was Adrian Benitez, one of Mexico%u2019s top mountaneers and on summit day, August 14th, 1992 we left camp 4 whilst the others stayed as they were feeling sick due to high altitude.
Weatherwise and our window of opportunity was getting slimmer so Adrian and I left for the top and when we were about 300 m from the summit an ice wall we were climbing broke and Adrian fell 9000 ft to his death.
Adrian fell and I was left in the middle of a storm hanging from a ledge, shuddering with panic and unable to move for a while.
It took me over two hours getting to a safer place where I radioed to base camp with the unfortunate news.
In the mean time I had no time to mourn as I had to aid in the rescue of Gary Ball who had developed pulmonary and cerebral edema on Camp 4 at above 8000 meters.
Bringing Gary down took us nearly four days due to bad weather. The sad end of the story is that he later died in Daulaghiri.
K2 is a killer mountain. The chances of dying against summiting and coming back alive are 3 to 1 so I really doubt that if there are missing people there, they would be alive after a day. RICARDO TORRES-NAVA

[petesis]

Riccardo. Were you above the bottleneck when your friends accident occurred? I have never been on K2 (I am a big fan of books about it and climbing in general, (vertical limit stunk) but the photos of the bottleneck do not look that steep. It seems steep in some of the photos and in others it looks like a walk up. Probably most guys are too busy to photograph it in the really dicey sections. Maybe I have just not seen the right photos. Every account I have read says it is very dicey. I have seen the huge hanging glacier with the couloir to the left. It looks like the path would skirt the rocks. Of course it is way high and way cold too. There are reports that there are some climbers still coming down so perhaps the death toll will not be as high as that reported. A serbian was killed before any of this happened (in the bottleneck) and perhaps the Koreans were actually on the fixed ropes when they were swept by the falling serac. It sounded like maybe these climbers made the top very late and actually bivouaced above the bottleneck and were attempting to come down the next morning when the accident hit.

[wardoglrs]

This was and is always the risk i do not look at them as though they were killed in glory but rather a bunch of show offs, Play with matches and die by fire

[winnerindia]

Good news from the CNN website. I believe they will also rescue others!

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/04/pakistan.climbers.ap/index.html

[winnerindia]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/04/pakistan.climbers.ap/index.html

[nothappyatall]

Why ''feared dead''? fearing it isn''t going to change the fact they are dead

[vranger]

Wardog, you are just plain sick. These people were engaged in a hobby they enjoyed. You can''t exactly ''show off'' from the slopes of Everest, K2, or most other mountains. What they do is technical, hard work. Several people died. They had families. But in your hard case little world they are ''show offs''.

If one of your family members had been in that group, maybe you could get over your envy of people who actually get out and live their lives, and feel a bit of compassion for those who lost their lives and the families who must now mourn.

[vranger]

Wardog, you are just plain sick. These people were engaged in a hobby they enjoyed. You can''t exactly ''show off'' from the slopes of Everest, K2, or most other mountains. What they do is technical, hard work. Several people died. They had families. But in your hard case little world they are ''show offs''.

If one of your family members had been in that group, maybe you could get over your envy of people who actually get out and live their lives, and feel a bit of compassion for those who lost their lives and the families who must now mourn.

[vranger]

Wardog, you are just plain sick. These people were engaged in a hobby they enjoyed. You can''t exactly ''show off'' from the slopes of Everest, K2, or most other mountains. What they do is technical, hard work. Several people died. They had families. But in your hard case little world they are ''show offs''.

If one of your family members had been in that group, maybe you could get over your envy of people who actually get out and live their lives, and feel a bit of compassion for those who lost their lives and the families who must now mourn.

[vranger]

Wardog, you are just plain sick. These people were engaged in a hobby they enjoyed. You can''t exactly ''show off'' from the slopes of Everest, K2, or most other mountains. What they do is technical, hard work. Several people died. They had families. But in your hard case little world they are ''show offs''.

If one of your family members had been in that group, maybe you could get over your envy of people who actually get out and live their lives, and feel a bit of compassion for those who lost their lives and the families who must now mourn.

[vranger]

Wardog, you are just plain sick. These people were engaged in a hobby they enjoyed. You can''t exactly ''show off'' from the slopes of Everest, K2, or most other mountains. What they do is technical, hard work. Several people died. They had families. But in your hard case little world they are ''show offs''.

If one of your family members had been in that group, maybe you could get over your envy of people who actually get out and live their lives, and feel a bit of compassion for those who lost their lives and the families who must now mourn.

[vranger]

I apologize for the multiple posts. The CBS site froze for a few minutes, and I did not know it was taking the submit click.

I was above the botleneck which is a very treacerous part. The microclimate of K2 makes it impossible to forsee what odds we have.
Many people think this is dangerous but living in Mexico subject to robberies, kidnappings and being murder by drug lords just by mistake makes climbing quite a safe experience.
Surviving unemployement,drug trafficking and rampant insecurity in Mexico beats by all means climbing K2.