The Renaissance in High Altitude Winter Climbing

It is arguably the most dangerous climbing on the planet, conducted in the harshest, most brutal conditions and in the death zone of elevation where the margin for error if infinitely small, and yet the mountaineering world in the midst of a renaissance of high-altitude winter climbing. There’s less daylight, more cold, more snow, more danger, more bad weather, better odds of getting frostbite, losing fingers and toes, and less chance of a successful summit — and yet five separate tough climbing teams are in or headed to the Himalaya and the Karakoram to try for summits yet untouched in winter.

The biggest assault is a Russian team attempting 8,611-meter K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, and certainly one of the most dangerous. Historically, one in four climbers attempting to summit K2 has died. Only a few more than 300 people have ever stood on top and hardly any of them have had a successful second summit – and that’s trying in the season of good, relatively stable weather

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