Poles eye historic winter ascent of K2
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
17.02.2017 12:17
A Polish team aims to set out later this year to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world and the only peak over 8,000 metres unconquered during the winter.
K2. Photo: Maria Ly from San Francisco, USA, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14701917
"It’s waiting for us. I hope that we will set out this year in late autumn," Krzysztof Wielicki, a mountaineering veteran who is planning the winter ascent, told Poland’s PAP news agency.
A Polish expedition was planned for this winter but failed to secure enough funds.
“We have the people [willing to undertake the challenge]. There is still the issue of financing,” said 67-year-old Wielicki.
He added that a team of eight to ten climbers should set off from Poland in the autumn.
K2 is particularly difficult to climb in the winter because of hazardous weather conditions there, he added.
The mountain, which lies on the Pakistani-Chinese border, is regarded as the most challenging of all the so-called eight-thousanders – peaks over 8,000 metres.
Over 77 climbers have died while trying to conquer K2, including several Poles.
For every four climbers who have reached the summit, one has died on average.
(pk/di)
Source: PAP
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