Climbing the world’s most lethal mountain
10, 2017. (Max Whittaker/The New York Times)
Janusz canada goose outlet uk sale Golab, part of a team planning a first ever winter ascent of K2 in the Himalayas, climbs in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland, Jan. 10, 2017. (Max Whittaker/The New York Times)
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The mountain rises glistening from an encasement of glaciers in the far reaches of canada goose outlet reviews the Karakoram. Pyramid shaped, an austere link to eternity, K2 yields only to canada goose coats Everest in height and is deadlier. Its walls are vertiginous no matter the approach.
Only the most experienced climbers attempt ascents, and for every four who crawl to canada goose factory sale its peak, one dies.
And then canada goose jacket outlet there is winter. Fourteen of cheap canada goose earth’s mountains exceed 8,000 meters (26,246 feet), canada goose outlet online uk and climbers have reached the peak of 13 in winter. K2 is the forbidding exception.
Ten Polish climbers hope to make history by reaching the summit next winter.
These men will hike through knee deep snow to a base camp at 18,645 feet, surpassing all but one mountain in the United States. Atop K2’s near vertical slopes, glacial icefalls dislodge car size hunks of ice. Winds at the summit reach hurricane strength, and temperatures can fall as low as minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
The climbers could wait two months in their tents, in hopes the gales relent for a few canada goose outlet store uk days. They have no margin for error; K2 routinely kills those trapped on its flanks.
This is the way of the Polish climbers, who for canadian goose jacket reasons of history and culture have earned reputations as the greatest climbers of canada goose outlet nyc the Himalayas in winter. They are prisoners of their dreams.
[85 year old Everest climber, trying to reclaim record, dies]
Janusz Golab is a long limbed lion of a climber with curly hair that goes here and there like an ethereal nimbus. uk canada goose outlet He is 49, still in his prime for a great climber, and he will be one of those charged with making it to the summit of K2 next winter. We talk as he stands in the darkened attic of a lodge in the Morskie Oko valley in Poland, looping purple rope in preparation for a training climb in the subzero of the Tatra Mountains.
To scale K2 in winter canada goose uk shop is not such modest madness. He has children and at least one girlfriend, and he appears filled with a love for life. It so happens he enjoys its deadly challenges. He has climbed in Antarctica, Greenland and the Himalayas. “Winter is the best season.” He shrugs. “It’s more challenging. It’s obvious it’s the best.”
There’s so much to unpack about this climb to the most hostile tip of the planet, a mountain that is 28,251 feet high and sits in the Karakoram range on the border of Pakistan and China. There are the technical and strategic challenges, and the task of picking a team in the individualistic world of high altitude climbing.
These men will live and work in the worst possible conditions for months. Each knows he may not return.
Four climbers canada goose outlet uk will make the final push to the summit without oxygen. Each has lost partners official canada goose outlet on cheap canada goose climbs.
There is, too, the power that history exerts on the https://www.ferienhaus-starnberger-see.de Poles. A decade ago, what remains of the old guard challenged a younger generation to test limits of flesh, endurance and creativity in the Himalayas. Their story, embedded in the urge of free spirits to slip the unsmiling bonds of a Cold War communist government, offers canada goose black friday sale our starting point.
From left: Kacper Tekieli, Piotr Tomala and Janusz Golab plot a route for a day of climbing in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland, Jan. 10, 2017. They are among a group planning what would be a first ever winter ascent of K2, the notorious Himalayan peak. (Max Whittaker/The New York Times)
From left: Kacper Tekieli, Piotr Tomala and Janusz Golab plot a route for a day of climbing in the Tatra Mountains of southern Poland, Jan. 10, 2017. They are among goose outlet canada a group planning what would be a first ever winter ascent of K2, the notorious Himalayan peak. (Max Whittaker/The New York Times)
Generations of Poles flocked like homing pigeons to the dark and jagged peaks of the Tatra Mountains, which rise on Poland’s southern border with Slovakia. canada goose outlet store Men and women scaled its granite walls in summer heat and in the belly of winter. canada goose coats on sale When photographer Max Whittaker and I accompanied five Polish Himalayan climbers to the Tatras in January, snow piled swollen on steep mountainsides and the temperature hovered near zero.
After World War II and its slaughters, the communists imposed a controlling regime. Its bureaucrats held all passports. Whether factory worker, engineer or mathematician, everyone scuffled for money. The mountains offered freedom from all that.
Poland’s climbing clubs canada goose store swelled with members. The most famous was found in Katowice, Canada Goose sale a steel town a few hours drive from the Tatras.
