UKC

Well today I was told a fasinating tale true or not it makes you wonder what else they aren't telling us still I shall tell you all (although you might already know)

Apparently some time ago Nasa did four fly buys with a satilite that measures the hight of our mountains and as rumour has it 3 out of the four time it measured k2 and Everest, K2 came out the highest by 17 feet

YES! k2 is higher than Everest.

But the tale goes on apparently Nasa has been told to keep quite regarding this matter due to the great embarresment it could or would cause to mountaineers the british empire and all those concerned in the measureing and claims that Everest is (WAS) the highest mountain in the world imagine being told that you did not climb the highest mountain but the Italians climbed the highest K2

Imagine being Hillery or Ervine, all that you did and all your effots to reach the top off the world and you were on the wrong F***ing mountain its just unbelievable still you were the first reach the seciond highst though.

Has any one else heard of this ?

or have I just beiong suckerd.
Still my scorce is a very well knowledged person on mountains although he does not climb him self he knows his stuff

In reply to Removed User:
I doubt anybody would have a go at Hillery or Ervine. They just climbed (or attempted) a 8000 meter peak for the first time.

Who cares if it's the highest or the second highest, or even the 10th.

But all those sheep that have followed just because it is the highest. They will have to spend another 25k to have a pop at the real highest mountain.

In reply to mat s: now that is funny..and it's more technical...that should seperate the wheat from the chaff

In reply to Removed User:

I've also heard that the moon landings were staged in a LA film studio.

I could belive it if K2 were only 100ft lower than Everest but to be 800ft out would be almost unbelieveable.

One things for sure the if K2 is higher will the hordes still be queueing up to climb it? I think most will get to basecamp, take one look at the pillar of rock and ice in front of them and either shit themselves or leg it back down the valley!

In reply to Removed User:
I think Hillary would be quite pleased with the fact that he did a huge amount for the local nepalese people on the back of his success on Everest simply because people belived it was the highest. Lacedelli and Compagnoni didn't do anything like this after K2.

In reply to mat s: True Hillery, Ervine and others were there just as great explorers great mountaineers and I suppose they didn't bother to much abouts its hight importance just that it was an 8000 meter peak in a relitivly unexplored area

But there are definatly some if not very many that care that it is the highest or not. Imagin if you had a dream of climbing the highest mountain in the world saved for many years put your self in great debt and climbed Everest got back down and was told oops sorry we made a slight measurment error K2 is in fact the highest!

In reply to Lizard:
at least I don't think they did...how presumtious of me- sorry, Italians

In reply to Removed User:
...and how much better would you feel if you'd already done "The BIG one":K2

In reply to Removed User: It was Ed Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in '53, and it was Mallory and Irvine in '24 not Hillery and Ervine! The first 8000'er to be climbed was Annapurna not Everest.

In reply to Removed User:

I think this tells you more about NASA than it does Everest or K2 although I doubt if NASA actually control satellites capable of doing this.

In reply to Removed User: This one has been bandied about for ages.

A British expedition in the eighties measured the height of K2 using GPS equipment and found it to be 13ft higher than Everest (though they said the batteries were low so it may be inaccurate). So an Italian expedition went out there to prove it one way or the other and as Italians were the first to climb K2 they would have a vested interest in proving it to be biggest so they could claim the first ascent of the highest peak. They came back with data that said it was almost the same height as the 19th century surveyors said and is definitely lower than Everest. Now if the Italians could claim the first ascent of the highest peak but proved it wasn't the highest then why would Nasa say anything different?

It is all here:-

http://web.outsideonline.com/peaks/features/k2.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/912906.stm

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~rchary/trek/tibet/everest/peaks.html

In reply to Removed User:
Well Adventure Peaks have an expedition to climb the Abruzzi Spur or the North ridge next year if you have a few grand to spare.
There's at least one spare place as I've pulled out of the trip myself.

http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/k2.htm

The guys who are already booked are a sound bunch and definately not Muppets !. This includes Walid who was one of the two guys who rescued me one Everest. Most are combining the ascent with Broad Peak.

http://www.adventurepeaks.com/expeditions/broad_peak.htm

Just think, only 6 British climbers have ever summited and only 3 have survived the round trip !

In reply to Conan:
Hi Conan,
I'd love to have a crack at K2 myself - though I need a bit more high altitude experience first
No one's managed to reach the top for two years now! I guess the weather is much more unsettled there than in the Everest region. I hope the guys pull it off next year!
Jim