K2 Historical Timeline

A late start

K2's remoteness kept it largely unexplored by Western mountaineers until 1902, when a British-Swiss expedition that included the famously eccentric Aleister Crowley made the first real attempt on the mountain — and failed, as everyone else would for the next half-century.

The first summit

It wasn't until 1954 that an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio finally put two climbers, Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni, on the summit. Their success came only after a supporting climber, Mario Puchoz, died of pneumonia on the mountain — an early, grim preview of the toll K2 would keep taking on the climbers who followed.

The last eight-thousander to fall in winter

Every other mountain above 8,000 meters had been climbed in winter conditions by 2020 — except K2. That changed in January 2021, when a team of ten Nepali climbers, led by Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, reached the summit together, closing out one of mountaineering's longest-standing challenges.