No Way Down, Life and Death On K2 (2010) (14 page)

Gerard McDonnell holds an Irish flag aloft on the summit. In 2006, during an earlier attempt on K2, he was caught in a rock fall and had to be airlifted from the mountain.
(The family of Gerard McDonnell)

 

Cecilie Skog and Rolf Bae had been married for little more than a year when they came to K2. Unlike other mountaineers who left spouses or partners behind for months on end during expeditions, the couple saw exploring and traveling as a way to be together.
(Cecilie Skog/cecilieskog.com)

 

Norwegian climber Lars Nessa came to the Karakoram curious to see K2, but with no fixed plan of making it to the summit. In the end, he made it to the top of the second tallest mountain on earth.
(Lars Flato Nessa)

 

Kim Jae-soo, the leader of the South Korean Flying Jump expedition. The Korean team, the largest on the mountain, included fifteen members.
(Karrar Haidri/saltorosummits.com)

 

Kim Jae-soo and the star climber from the South Korean team, Go Mi-sun. Go would die a year later on Nanga Parbat, another mountain in northern Pakistan.
(Karrar Haidri/saltorosummits.com)

 

Jumik Bhote, pictured here in Kathmandu, had recently been promoted to chief Sherpa of the South Korean Flying Jump team. His son would be born while Jumik was climbing on K2.
(Virginia O'Leary)

 

Jumik with his brother, Chhiring. Chhiring and other family members from their village in Nepal also worked as Sherpas for the South Korean team.
(Virginia O'Leary)

 

Members of different expeditions at Base Camp carry Wilco van Rooijen on a stretcher to the helicopter emergency landing pad on August 4.
(Chris Klinke)

 

Dutch mountaineer Cas van de Gevel waits for helicopter evacuation from K2 Base Camp. Helping rescue his friend Wilco van Rooijen, he spent the night bivouacking at 24,000 feet.
(Chris Klinke)

 

Marco Confortola is helped by military officials from a helicopter in Skardu, northern Pakistan. Badly frostbitten, all his toes would later be amputated.
(The Associated Press)

 

The leader of the Dutch Norit K2 team, Wilco van Rooijen, survived two nights without shelter on the mountain and called his wife in the Netherlands to help him find his way down. He lost nearly all his toes from frostbite.
(Wilco van Rooijen)