Russians Conquer K2's West Face

Dougald MacDonald

22nd August, 2007

This has been read 15,146 times

A Russian expedition has completed the 8,500-foot-high West Face of K2 after more than 10 weeks of effort. Andrew Mariev and Vadim Popovich reached the top of the 28,251-foot (8611m) peak at around 1 p.m. on August 21. Several other climbers are in high camps and may make their own possible summit bids.

The Russians fixed ropes up most of the unclimbed West Face, establishing seven camps on the wall, including two camps above 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). Although team members spent many nights in the “Death Zone” during numerous forays up and down the peak, they did not use supplemental oxygen.

Read the full report by Dougald MacDonald at Climbing.com

This post has been read 15,146 times

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Comments

rockmonkey1

22 Aug, 2007

inspirational! well done

GrahamD

22 Aug, 2007

Now this really is news ! I'm almost tempted to dig out the Bonners SW face of Everest book for a re-read. Can we drop the sensationalist "conquer", though, please ? no one conquers a mountain.

dougald

22 Aug, 2007

I chose the verb "conquer" deliberately in the headline for my story at Climbing.com. Although the Russian ascent is indeed extremely impressive (and, in fact, the rest of the team summited today), their 10-week assault and use of fixed rope on nearly the entire face struck me as a form of "conquest." Dougald

alasdair19

22 Aug, 2007

I'd agree with conquest, I suspect oil roubles and newly emergent nationalism has made funding these climbs easier than is used to be. these russians are just an incredibly tough team. We can claim style has moved on but the last 5 years or so has seen them climb so many phenomenal (sp) routes. They also seem to have brought back allmost all their climbers as well which is awesome.