Mountain Madness [Updated]

At least nine climbers are feared dead and five others are missing on the deadly Pakistan peak K2, a mountain I have written a couple of posts about.

K2 has always had a reputation for being a killer peak, not only because it is the second-highest mountain in the world after Everest, but it is constantly plagued by terrible weather.

An avalanche is the cause of this, the worst tragedy on the mountain in history. The climbers were on descent from the summit when the avalanche occurred. There were 22 total in the climbing group, which was made up mostly of foreigners.

I am sure more updates will be found on this site.

Update: This article claims K2 is the hardest of the 8,000-meter mountains (the 14 highest mountains in the world, all located in the Himalayan-Karakorum range) to climb. That may be true, but it isn't the deadliest of the 8,000-meter mountains; that dubious honor goes to Annapurna. It was the first of the "8000-ers" to be climbed, but comparatively few people have ever made the attempt. It has a fatality rate of 40%. According to Wikipedia, only 103 successful summits have ever been made, with 56 deaths (many to avalanches).

Another update: Here is a report including a review of previous K2 disasters, specifically the 1986 and 1995 tragedies. Of particular note is three women who had successfully climbed K2 (Julie Tullis, Liliane Barrard, and Alison Hargreaves) died on descent. The article notes this mountain is particularly dangerous on descent.

Update three: The BBC has a video report.

Mountaineer Chris Bonnington gives his take on the tragedy.

Celebrated mountaineer Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all 14 of the 8,000-meter peaks, blames commercial mountaineering for the tragedies.