Mountain Madness

I found these really interesting articles about K2 while surfing around the internet. Both links are from Outside magazine:

The Mountain of Mountains. This article is really good.

Take a look at the picture of K2 on the first page of the article. It is enough to give one vertigo. Note how steep it is. It juts straight up. No wonder mountaineers call it the toughest climb in the world.

This page of links is about the 1995 K2 tragedy which cost several mountaineers their lives including Alison Hargreaves.
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Considering all Marco Confortola went through, he is in surprisingly good shape. AP has some photos of him. His toes are bluish-gray from frostbite.
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Of course it isn't just men anymore who take stupid risks to climb mountains like K2; more women are doing it, including Cecilie Skog, who became the tenth woman to successfully climb the summit of K2 and the seventh to actually survive the descent. Her husband, Rolf Bae, climbed with her but died up there.

It IS dumb; people who do this are vying for inclusion in the Darwin Awards hall of fame. The Himalayan/Karakorum mountains should be left alone. ALL of the highest peaks have been climbed; there are few or no more "firsts" to accomplish.
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