Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day (36 page)

French climber Hugues d’Aubarède (right) hired Pakistani high-altitude porter Jehan Baig (left) after another team fired Jehan for refusing to carry loads through an avalanche zone. Here they display one of Hugues’s gourmet dinners, freeze-dried chicken breasts. (
credit Nick Rice
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Pakistani high-altitude porter Karim Meherban guided Hugues on K2 in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, Hugues hired him again, and Karim believed they would reach the summit that time. “I can’t stop yet,” Karim told his father before leaving for the mountain. “Just this one summit, then maybe.” (
credit Qudrat Ali
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Shaheen Baig, who had previously summited K2, was appointed leader of the advance team. “We were all so young and strong,” he recalled. “I never thought there would be an accident.” (
credit Simone Moro
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During the final logistics meeting at Base Camp, Muhammad Hussein wrote up the list of the lead team members who would break trail and place ropes through the Bottleneck. Only Pakistani and Nepali climbers were to lead; the Korean climbers volunteered to play an administrative role. (
Courtesy of Hoselito Bite
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Muhammad Khan (left) and “Little” Muhammad Hussein worked as high-altitude porters for the Serbian team. They had previously summited K2 in 2004. (
credit Peter Zuckerman
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Before their summit bid, the mountaineers took a group photo. Dren Mandic, Eric Meyer, and Chhiring Dorje Sherpa are in the second row, second, third, and fourth from the left. The French climber Hugues d’Aubarède leans forward directly above them, with Pemba Gyalje and Marco Confortola to his left. Standing in the front row is Korean leader Mr. Kim. Kneeling in the front row, third and fourth from the left, are Ms. Go and Karim Meherban. Kneeling front and center, with blond hair, is Dutchman Wilco van Rooijen. (
credit Hoselito Bite
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Seracs loom above the Bottleneck, the deadliest stretch of K2. Giant blocks of ice routinely calve from the sheer ice wall. (
credit Iso Planic / Predrag Zagorac
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The Bottleneck, a thirty-story ascent, is only wide enough for a single-file line of climbers. (
credit Lars Flato Nessa
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Climbers want to move quickly through the Bottleneck and the Traverse to reduce the amount of time they spend below the seracs. Unfortunately, the line moves only as fast as the slowest mountaineer. (
credit Chris Klinke
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Basque climber Alberto Zerain made it up through the Bottleneck before everyone else and topped out at 3 p.m., hours ahead of the other climbers. Chhiring took this photo of Alberto descending as seventeen climbers were still going up. (
credit Chhiring Dorje Sherpa
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Upon reaching the summit of K2, Chhiring unfurled Nepal’s double-pennant flag in celebration. He topped out at 6:37 p.m., too late to avoid heading back in the darkness and cold of night. (
credit Pemba Gyalje Sherpa
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From the summit, the climbers surveyed the entire Karakorum range. (
credit Lars Flato Nessa
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