Posted: Aug 13, 2008 06:14 pm EDT
AdventureStats has been updated with the latest statistics on K2. The numbers show facts useful for future K2 climbers.

With this season's 11 fatalities, 77 climbers have now perished on K2. 20 died in avalanches, 21 died in falls. 11 climbers marked as "disappeared" could add to the avalanche figure.

The last 17 fatalities on K2 all happened in or above the Bottleneck. They were all caused by either fall or avalanche.

18 climbers have summited K2 so far this season (preliminary numbers), for a total of 299 summits.

32 summiteers, or more than 10% of the total 299 died on descent. Compare to Everest with 2.5% of summiteers perishing on descent.

From 2000 to 2007; Everest has seen a summit/fatality ratio of 1.5% while K2 has lost 7.5% of the summiteers.

K2 All summiteers

K2 Fatalities

K2 Route Statistics

Other notes

The following stats for the K2 2008 season are not yet complete but offer interesting notes already:

* Two more girls have summited K2, for a total of 11 female summiteers - at still only 3.5% of the overall number. The last 6 girls to summit all survived the climb.
* K2 got its first Irish, and first Norwegian summits
* Hughes was the second oldest to summit the peak
* Nations who have lost most climbers to the peak: South Korea (7) and Pakistan (7), Spain (6), Russia (6), USA (6), Nepal (6).
* The most successful nations are Japan (49), Italy (36), South Korea (28), Spain (26), Nepal (18). These 5 nations make up more than 50% of all K2 summits.
* South Korean Ms. Go Mi Sun summited her 6th 8000er.

Although numbers of climbers exceed numbers of summiteers; it is still a disturbing fact that Pakistan only has nine K2 summiteers, but seven of the K2 fatalities. This might warrant a re-evaluation of how High Altitude Porters are used on K2, especially considering that the mortality rate for Sherpas on Everest is lower than for other climbers.

2008: middle group killed

In the updated list of summiteers, the 2008 summit times are noted. The list shows that while the first and last summiteers survived, all the killed were in the middle group of summiteers.

K2 All summiteers

ExWeb's interviews with survivors in Islamabad

End last week, ExWeb's correspondent in Islamabad Karrar Haidri interviewed the survivors.

Wilco Van Rooijen and Cas Van De Gevel said climbers were trapped at around 26,000 feet of altitude above the Bottleneck. Wilco confirmed that advance climbers fixed ropes in the wrong place at about 1,150 feet below the summit, where the avalanche later took place.

Marco Confortola said that poor rope equipment and a mistake by a porter who forgot to bring a 656-foot rope was "just the beginning of the problems." Confortola said he heard a boom and witnessed a second avalanche, in which Gerard McDonnell vanished.

Marco also said he descended alone until he was helped down by two Pakistan high altitude porters (ed note: the climber also told Montagna that he was found by Pemba Sherpa who saved his life). Marco told ExWeb that his toes are black and that he just wanted to go home. The climber left Pakistan Thursday last week and did not attend the press conference arranged by the Ministry of Tourism.

Korean female climber Go Mi Sun told Karrar Haidri that this was a great loss to the expedition as three of the team's experienced mountaineers and two of their Sherpas died in the accident.

Go Mi Sun said that K2 became her 6th 8000er summit, and that her goal is to climb all 14 8000 meter peaks by the year 2011, with Kanchenjunga last on the list. The climber said that her team summited K2 at 5.30pm, and lost all 5 members in an accident on descent.

She also said that team Sherpa Jumik Bhote called home to his pregnant wife over a satellite phone from the summit. After he died, Bhote's wife gave birth to a baby girl. "This was very shocking to me," Go told Karrar.

The expedition was outfitted by Blue Sky Treks and Tours owned by Ghulam Muhammad, and Go said that Ghulam, who has been working with the team since 2005, had been very helpful throughout the accident.

Korean Expedition leader Kim Jae Soo told Karrar that he climbed Everest twice (1990 and 2007), Cho Oyu in 1993, Broad Peak in 2007, Shisha Pangma twice (1991 and 2007) and Lhotse twice (2002 and 2008) in addition to K2 in 2008. Kim said that he plans to climb Manaslu this fall.

(Ed note: The statistics have been compiled from ExWeb's emails to and interviews with climbers and webmasters, in addition to official records from Pakistan. If you have a correction or addition, please email team@explorersweb.com.)

(Story edited 01:14 pm CDT Aug 14, 2008: Spanish Alberto Zerain did not do a BP/K2 double header, as perviously stated. Thanks for the correction guys!)

Only Americans Mike Farris, Dave Watson, Chuck Boyd, Gheorghe Dijmarescu and two Nepali Sherpas remain on K2, still hoping for a summit bid.

Alberto Zerain’s team is in Islamabad, waiting for a flight back to Spain.

The Norit K2 Expedition team had extensive meetings with the relatives of McDonnell in Pakistan, and the Dutch members will return home tomorrow Thursday, August 14th. The four Dutch team members will meet the press after their arrival in Amsterdam in order to talk about the expedition and the tragic developments during August 1-3.

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