K2-The Mountain
Share
Scaling peaks and pursuing dreams. High Altitude Climbing, Where the air is thin.
The north face of Gran Paradiso is regarded as one of the most serious mountaineering objectives in the massif.
Good morning from Mt. Everest; highest Point of Earth🌎❤️🇳🇵
📸chad.gaston
Popular Mountaineer Nirmal Purja attempted the Guinness World Record for the fastest climbing of Mt Everest and Mt. Lhotse in 13 hrs 42 mins 17 sec without any supplementary oxygen. 😲
Congratulations Bianca Adler 🙏🇦🇺🎉
18-year-old Bianca Adler has made history as the youngest Australian to summit Mount Everest (8,848.86m). 🏔️🇦🇺
On the morning of 20 May 2026, Bianca Jane Adler successfully reached the summit of Everest in fair weather conditions. At just 18 years old, she became the youngest Australian ever to stand on the top of the world.
This remarkable achievement follows her previous record as the youngest female to summit Manaslu at the age of 16 in 2024. She also continues a proud family mountaineering legacy — her father, Paul Adler, summited Everest in 2007, and her mother, Fionna Adler, in 2006.
Wishing Bianca many more safe and successful adventures ahead. 🙏🏔️
69 years ago, without supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters, four Austrian climbers made the first ascent of Broad Peak while carrying their own loads on the mountain.
On June 9, 1957, Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, and Hermann Buhl reached the summit of Broad Peak, an 8,051-meter giant in Pakistan’s Karakoram range.
Led by Marcus Schmuck, the Austrian team climbed the mountain’s Western spur and Western flank, using a remarkably lightweight style for an 8,000-meter expedition of that era.
THE SUMMIT DAY
The team had already made a serious attempt on May 29, when Wintersteller and Diemberger reached the forepeak at around 8,030 meters. They realized the true summit still lay farther along the ridge, but it was too late to continue, so they turned back.
On June 9, they tried again from Camp III, starting before dawn in severe cold. Schmuck and Wintersteller moved ahead and reached Broad Peak’s true summit at around 5:05 pm.
Diemberger reached the summit area around 6:00 pm as Schmuck and Wintersteller were beginning their descent. He then started down, met a severely fatigued Buhl still pushing upward, and turned back to accompany him. By around 7:00 pm, Diemberger and Buhl had reached the summit together.
By the end of the day, all four members of the small Austrian team had stood on Broad Peak.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF 8,000M ASCENT
What made the climb remarkable was not only the summit, but the style. The team used no supplemental oxygen and had no high-altitude porters helping establish camps or carry supplies above base camp.
At a time when many major Himalayan and Karakoram expeditions relied on large siege-style tactics, Broad Peak was climbed by a small team carrying its own loads and relying on self-sufficiency high on the mountain.
HERMANN BUHL’S PLACE IN HISTORY
The ascent also gave Hermann Buhl a unique place in mountaineering history. In 1953, he made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat, one of the most dramatic solo summit pushes ever completed on an 8,000-meter peak.
With Broad Peak in 1957, Buhl became the first person to make first ascents of two 8,000-meter mountains.
Broad Peak’s first ascent remains one of the clearest early examples of alpine-style climbing on the world’s highest mountains.
13/06/2026
On May 22, 1998, American climber Francys Arsentiev and her Russian husband, Sergei Arsentiev, set out to achieve a remarkable goal: to climb Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.
The weather was poor, and strong winds battered the mountain. Despite the risks, the couple pressed on. Late in the day—between approximately 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.—they reached the summit, becoming one of the few couples to stand atop the world's highest mountain without bottled oxygen.
But the celebration was short-lived.
During the descent, Francys began to struggle. Exhausted, suffering from the effects of extreme altitude, and weakened by the cold, she could no longer keep pace. Somewhere high on the mountain, the couple became separated.
Alone in the Death Zone, above 8,000 meters, Francys was unable to continue descending. At that altitude, even a single step can feel impossible.
The following day, members of an Uzbek climbing team encountered her. She was still alive, but barely. Severely frostbitten, suffering from oxygen deprivation, and unable to move on her own, she desperately needed help.
The climbers gave her oxygen and attempted to assist her. But on Everest's upper slopes, rescuing an incapacitated climber is extraordinarily difficult. In the Death Zone, even healthy climbers are fighting for survival. Despite their efforts, they were unable to bring her down.
As the climbers prepared to continue their ascent, Francys reportedly pleaded with them:
"Don't leave me. Don't leave me alone, please."
Those heartbreaking words would become some of the most famous in Everest history.
Meanwhile, Sergei had reached Camp IV and realized that his wife had been left behind. Determined to save her, he turned around and climbed back into the Death Zone carrying oxygen.
He never returned.
A year later, Sergei's body was discovered on the Tibetan side of the mountain. He had died while trying to rescue the woman he loved.
Francys also perished on the mountain. For years, her body remained beside the climbing route, visible to thousands of mountaineers making their way toward the summit. Because she appeared to be peacefully resting in the snow, climbers eventually gave her a haunting nickname: "The Sleeping Beauty of Everest."
Many climbers stopped when they passed her. Some fell silent. Some became emotional. Others were deeply disturbed. Her presence served as a powerful reminder that Everest is not only a place of dreams and achievement, but also one of loss and sacrifice.
In 2007, a team led by British climber Ian Woodall, with the assistance of Sherpas, moved Francys's body away from the main climbing route to provide greater privacy and dignity.
Today, her body is no longer visible, but her story continues to live on.
It is not remembered merely as a story of death. It is a story of love, ambition, courage, and sacrifice. High on the slopes of the world's tallest mountain, a husband turned back to save his wife, and neither ever made it home.
More than two decades later, the story of Francys and Sergei Arsentiev remains one of the most powerful and heartbreaking chapters in Everest history.
This is what the boot crampon worn by George Mallory and Andrew Irvine on Mount Everest in 1924 looked like.
Climbing back then was truly adventurous. His body was discovered in 1999, 75 years after he disappeared.
This photograph of the boot, found alongside his remains, was taken by Thom Pollard, a member of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition.
The photograph captures a piece of mountaineering history, highlighting several details from the 1999 discovery:
*** The Missing Toe-Nails: Expert mountaineers and researchers (including Jake Norton and Thom Pollard) who studied the body noted that the metal hobnails on the very front toe portion of this right boot are completely missing. This suggests Mallory was desperately kicking into the ice and rock to perform a "self-arrest" to stop a violent fall.
*** The Fatal Fracture: This right boot was still attached to Mallory’s foot when Conrad Anker found him. Just above the cuff of this leather boot, Mallory’s leg had suffered a severe, overlapping fracture of the tibia and fibula caused by the force of the tumble.
*** The Contrast with Sandy Irvine: When Andrew "Sandy" Irvine's boot was discovered in the ice years later, its toe-nails were still fully intact, reinforcing the theory that Mallory bore the brunt of the final fall while trying to save them both.
June 08: On this day exactly 102 years ago (1924), legendary British mountaineers George Mallory and Andrew "Sandy" Irvine disappeared high on the slopes of Mount Everest. 🥲
The pair vanished in one of the greatest mysteries in mountaineering history.
The Final Sighting: Geologist and climber Noel Odell spotted the two men at roughly 12:50 PM, describing them as "tiny black spots" ascending high on the Northeast Ridge, possibly near the Second Step. Odell reported they were "going strong for the top" before clouds rolled in and obscured them from view. They were never seen alive again.
The Ongoing Debate: Because no summit photograph was ever recovered, it remains a heavily debated topic whether Mallory and Irvine successfully reached the summit almost 30 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
Discoveries: Mallory's remains were found in 1999 by a dedicated search expedition. In September 2024, a National Geographic-supported team found partial remains on the Central Rongbuk Glacier, positively identifying a boot and a sock with "A.C. Irvine" stitched on it, which added crucial new evidence to the investigation of their final hours.
The last breath of Hannelore Schmatz on Everest. 🥲
Hannelore Schmatz was a German mountaineer who became the fourth woman to summit Mount Everest in October 1979.
Climbing as part of an expedition led by her husband, Gerhard Schmatz, she achieved this milestone via the Southeast Ridge route. However, the triumph quickly turned into one of mountaineering's most well-known tragedies.
Key details of the expedition and its aftermath include:
The Summit: Schmatz reached the 8,848-meter (29,032 feet) peak on October 2, 1979, accompanied by Sherpa Sungdare, just one day after her husband summited.
The Descent: The group was caught in severe post-monsoon conditions and exhausted from the ascent. Forced to bivouac at a perilous 8,300 meters (27,230 feet), fellow climber Ray Genet succumbed to hypothermia that night.
The Final Moments: Weakened and suffering from oxygen deprivation, Schmatz collapsed near the South Col. Aware of the extreme danger to her rescue team, she urged them to continue without her. She sat against her backpack and passed away, becoming the first recorded female fatality on Everest's upper slopes.
A Haunting Landmark: Her body remained frozen on the mountainside for years, exactly where she had collapsed—upright with her hair blowing in the wind. She was an eerie landmark for subsequent climbers until years of fierce winds eventually swept her remains over the edge into the Kangshung Face.
Hannelore was no novice. She had climbed countless peaks with her husband, Gerhard Schmatz, driven by passion, discipline, and love for the mountains. But Everest is different. It does not care about experience, history, or achievement. It demands everything—and sometimes, it takes more.
Her story is not just one of tragedy.
It is a story of courage, ambition, and the razor-thin line between victory and loss.
Hannelore Schmatz reached the top of the world.
And in doing so, became part of Everest forever.
🚨: Dawa Sherpa's wife, Damu Sherpa, and his nephew, Karma Gelje Sherpa, have officially filed a police case against his employer, Himalayan Traverse.
They have also registered a formal complaint with Nepal's Department of Tourism, slamming them for a lack of safety oversight and a delayed response.
Karma Gelje publicly criticized the industry disparity, stating: "If he had been a foreign climber, rescue would definitely have been organized much faster and more promptly, but he happened to be an old Nepali."
His wife, Damu Sherpa, heavily questioned the government's priorities, pointing out that while the state boasts of collecting over 1 billion rupees in revenue from Everest permits this season, her urgent calls for help during the initial days of his disappearance were entirely ignored. She has also openly demanded to know why the team’s paid government Liaison Officer failed to act promptly.
Before his rescue, his family had already begun funeral rites under the assumption he had died. 🥲
Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.
Category
Contact the business
Telephone
Website
Address
GilgitBiltistan
Gilgit
0092