K2 has a much greater allure to me than Everest. While Everest is tallest, K2 is steeper, more remote, and has much harsher weather. But it's in that "gotta win the lottery first" bucket list.
Everest is a 5k color run, and K2 is Badwater. (Well maybe not quite, and I don't know jack about mountaineering, but you get the idea.) I just watched a documentary on Netflix called The Summit, about the 2008 expedition on K2. Due to bad weather and a series of incidents, 11 people died out of 28. Overall, there has been about one death for every 4 who have summited.
Everest is a 5k color run, and K2 is Badwater. (Well maybe not quite, and I don't know jack about mountaineering, but you get the idea.)
I just watched a documentary on Netflix called The Summit, about the 2008 expedition on K2. Due to bad weather and a series of incidents, 11 people died out of 28. Overall, there has been about one death for every 4 who have summited.
Those are terrible odds of survival, and easily avoided!
I lost my rama
Thanks! I will have to watch that tonight. I read a couple books on K2 years ago. Not that Everest is a cake walk or anything, but yeah, K2 is flat out scary shit. ....which begs the question, why is it on my bucket list?
Speaking of which, time to suit up and go run in a blizzard.
3/17 - NYC Half
4/28 - Big Sur Marathon DNS
6/29 - Forbidden Forest 30 Hour
8/29 - A Race for the Ages - will be given 47 hours
Step 1 - don't do it.
Thanks! I will have to watch that tonight. I read a couple books on K2 years ago. Not that Everest is a cake walk or anything, but yeah, K2 is flat out scary shit. ....which begs the question, why is it on my bucket list? Speaking of which, time to suit up and go run in a blizzard.
Just watch this movie Berto. Then you don't have to go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grv3d55FOkk
And then watch this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvVoO5cKiSk
Just watch this movie Berto. Then you don't have to go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grv3d55FOkk And then watch this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvVoO5cKiSk
Haha!
K2 was a good movie. Best lines for me were....
"I didn't make the world the way it is Harold..."
Harold: "We all make the world the way it is."
Vertical Limit I didn't like. Palm-sweaty entertaining and dramatic, but not realistic. Not even Usain Bolt can sprint in boots and crampons to jump over a crevasse at 8,000 meters. Oh yeah, at the end of that clip, a human body will bounce off the ground after a fall that long.... and how I do know these things?
Did you see Everest? (I think it was based on the Jon Krakauer book Into Thin Air?) I thought it was pretty good, but no idea how realistic it was.
Dave
Did you watch Everest? I thought it was pretty good, but no idea how realistic it was.
Not sure if I did, which means if I did see it, it didn't leave much of an impression. A lot of these movies, the scenery is the main attraction for me. It's very difficult to envision what it's really like to be there from a movie. Books are much more descriptive. In Maurice Herzog's book Annapurna, he describes fingers and toes rolling around on the floor of a train ride back, because they had to be amputated from frost bite.
Ok, now I really need to get off my arse....
Edit - John Krakauer's book Into Thin Air was total crap, IMO. Reading it, I can totally see how it pulls you into believing everything he said. However, it was so biased and misrepresenting of people (he had to have protagonists and antagonists), that it forced Anatoli Boukreev, who is very humble and quiet, to write a book to rebut Krakauer's account. I don't know of any accomplished mountaineer who would stand behind Krakauer. OTOH - I did enjoy his book Into the Wild about a kid venturing into his demise in Alaska. True or not, it was a good read.
Are we there, yet?
Not sure if I did, which means if I did see it, it didn't leave much of an impression. A lot of these movies, the scenery is the main attraction for me. It's very difficult to envision what it's really like to be there from a movie. Books are much more descriptive. In Maurice Herzog's book Annapurna, he describes fingers and toes rolling around on the floor of a train ride back, because they had to be amputated from frost bite. Ok, now I really need to get off my arse.... Edit - John Krakauer's book Into Thin Air was total crap, IMO. Reading it, I can totally see how it pulls you into believing everything he said. However, it was so biased and misrepresenting of people (he had to have protagonists and antagonists), that it forced Anatoli Boukreev, who is very humble and quiet, to write a book to rebut Krakauer's account. I don't know of any accomplished mountaineer who would stand behind Krakauer. OTOH - I did enjoy his book Into the Wild about a kid venturing into his demise in Alaska. True or not, it was a good read.
Boukreev's book, The Climb, was great reading and counter balanced a lot of Krakauer's sensationalism. Sadly Boukreev died on Annapurna a year or two later. I believe the American Alpine Club honored him with its highest award for valor.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K, 9:11:09 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
I enjoyed Into Thin Air, but I guess I didn't know any better than to believe it. And like I said, I am not any kind of mountaineering buff, I just enjoy a good story. Fortunately I read it such a long time ago, that when I saw Everest, I didn't remember who was going to die.
I just read that K2's altitude is over 28,000 feet. What? When I was skydiving, I was feeling the effects of hypoxy at 15,000 ft. Friends of mine made a helicopter jump from 20,000 ft one day, and on the video my friend Ben was almost passed out. He kept his "flying position" by muscle memory only, but wasn't checking his altimeter and was not reacting. Ben had about 1000 jumps and was an experienced jumper. It was clearly lack of oxygen. The others were worried and were wondering if they'd have to open his chute for him. At around 5-6000 feet (plenty safe) he snapped out of it and all was good.
That's why climbers (1) gradually acclimatize themselves, and (2) use supplemental oxygen.
I get it. But still must be incredibly hard.
Yeah that's an understatement. Altitudes over 8000m are called the "death zone", because supposedly your body cannot physically acclimatize to it. That's where they get into a lot of trouble. I never want to do anything in my life that involves entering something called the "death zone"
Yup. The body gradually dies at that altitude. It's only a matter of time. The mind is also not fully coherent either. Climbers will lose track of time at the summit and when starting to descend, they're too late and find themselves in serious trouble.
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Being indecisive is the worst. I can’t decide whether to run inside or outside tomorrow...
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