K2

Ask a room full of climbers which mountain scares them most, and plenty won't say Everest — they'll say K2. Rising 8,611 meters (28,251 feet) in Pakistan's Karakoram range, it is the second-highest peak on Earth, just 238 meters short of Everest's summit. But altitude alone doesn't explain the mountain's reputation. K2 has one of the steepest, most technical profiles of any 8,000-meter peak, and historically, for roughly every four climbers who have reached its summit, one has died trying. Climbers simply call it the Savage Mountain.

Unlike almost every other major peak, K2 never picked up a lasting local name before 19th-century British surveyors got to it first. The "K" stands for Karakoram, and it was simply the second peak the Great Trigonometrical Survey measured in the range — a placeholder label that was never meant to last. Somehow it did, and a filing code from a 19th-century survey team outlasted every attempt at something more poetic.

There's no easy way to see K2 up close. The trek to Base Camp starts in Askole, the last village with road access, and takes roughly seven to ten days on foot each way — no roads, no huts, no shortcuts. Most groups go between late June and early September, the only real window before the high passes close with snow.