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Gasherbrum II (گاشر برم -2; ), also known as K4, is the 13th highest mountain on Earth. It is located on the border of Gilgit–Baltistan province, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China. At 8034 m high, Gasherbrum II is the third highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, located in the Karakoram range of the Himalayas.

Gasherbrum II was first climbed on July 7, 1956 by Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch and Hans Willenpart of an Austrian expedition.

Geography
Gasherbrum II is located on the border of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China. It is part of the Karakoram mountain range in the Himalayas, and located at the top of the Baltoro Glacier. With an elevation of 8034 m, it is the third highest member of the Gasherbrum group, behind Gasherbrum I (8080 m) and Broad Peak (8051 m). Gasherbrum III is sometimes considered to be a subpeak of Gasherbrum II, because the former has a topographic prominence of only 461 m.

Naming
In 1856, Thomas George Montgomerie, a member of the British Royal Engineers and part of the Great Trigonometric Survey, sighted the mountain and named it "K4", meaning the fourth mountain of Karakoram. The name "Gasherbrum" comes from the Balti words rgasha "beautiful" and brum "mountain"; it does not, contrary to popular belief, mean "shining wall", how Sir William Martin Conway described nearby Gasherbrum IV in a 1892 exploration.

Climbing history
The mountains of the Gasherbrum group were explored in 1909 by the Duke of the Abruzzi and Vittorio Sella. The Abruzzi Glacier, a tributary of the Baltoro Glacier, is named after the Duke.

In 1934, Günter Dyhrenfurth and his International Himalayan Expedition, including André Roch, explored Gasherbrum I and II, making it 6250 m up Gasherbrum II.

The first ascent came on July 7, 1956, by Austrians Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch and Hans Willenpart by the Southwest Ridge. After they set up Camp I, they had to descend, and found the camp—and all their supplies and food—buried by an avalanche when they returned. Despite this, they decided to make a quick summit attempt. After opening up a route, they left Camp III on June 6. The group spent the night in a bivouac sack and reached the top at 11:30 am the next day.

In 1975, four expeditions successfully summited Gasherbrum II, including Jean Pierre Fresafond's French expedition, a Polish group under Janusz Onyszkiewicz, and another Polish expedition led by Wanda Rutkiewicz.

Four years later, a Chilean group claimed to have used the "normal" route to reach the top. Several others, including Reinhard Karl, Hanns Schell, and Kurt Diemberger also summitted.

On 24 July 1982, Reinhold Messner, along with Nazir Sabir and Sher Khan, climbed via the Southwest Ridge. During that year, Messner also climbed two other eight-thousanders, Kangchenjunga and Broad Peak, and attempted Cho Oyu. He wrote a book, 3 x 8000: My Great Year in the Himalaya (3 x 8000: Mein grosses Himalaja-Jahr), about this.

In July 1996, Jean-Christophe Lafaille climbed Gasherbrum I and II in four days, without stopping at Base Camp in between.

In 2006, Sebastian Haag and Benedikt Böhm climbed Gasherbrum II twice within a week. At 8:00 am on 29 July, they reached the top and then skied down without abseiling or removing their skis. They rested for a few days before leaving Base 1 again on 3 August. They started out fast, reaching Camp 4 in six hours, but 50 cm of fresh snow slowed them down, and they reached the summit after over six hours of tough climbing. They descended on skis again, this time made even more dangerous by packed-down snow and the risk of an avalanche. Despite this, they both made it safely back to Camp 1 in under 17 hours, whereas a normal expedition takes 4–7 days.

Karl Unterkircher and Daniele Bernasconi, two Italians, climbed Gasherbrum II in 2007 in alpine style. They were the first to use the North Face through China. The route had been attempted a year earlier by a German–Swiss team, but they abandoned it after an avalanche. During the attempt they fixed around 1200 m of rope. They arrived at the summit around 8:00 pm on July 20 after spending the night in a bivouac shelter. A third member, Michele Compagnoni, grandson of Achille Compagnoni, turned back just 150 m before the summit. The team reunited and descended down the normal, northwest route.

On February 2, 2011, Cory Richards, Denis Urubko, and Simone Moro became the first to ascend Gasherbrum II in the winter. Despite being buried by a class-four avalanche, they made it at 11:30 am, without supplemental oxygen or porters. Richards, who was the first American to climb an eight-thousander in the winter, filmed the expedition, which he turned into the film Cold.

Timeline

 * ✅ 1956 First ascent
 * ✅ 1975 Second ascent by a French group, 19 years after the first ascent. This expedition also saw the first death on the Gasherbrum. Three other expeditions summit including a Polish women's team headed by Wanda Rutkiewicz.
 * ✅ 1979 A Chilean and a German expedition succeed in the sixth and seventh ascents. The Chilean was the first Latin-American ascent to an eight-thousander
 * ✅ 1982 Reinhold Messner reaches the top with two Pakistanis, Nazir Sabir and Sher Khan.
 * 1983 Jerzy Kukuczka with Wojciech Kurtyka eastern ridge ascent, new route. Alpine style ascent without the aid of oxygen.
 * 1984 Messner and Hans Kammerlander traverse Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II without returning to base camp in between.
 * 1984 First descent by ski by team CAF Besançon (France) led by Daniel Croisot, summit by Wim Pasquier and Patrice Bournat, ski from the summit, joined by Dr Dominique Dock from 7800m, totally skied the face down to base-camp set at 5200m. 1 month after meeting with Messner and Kammerlander, returning from their 2 summits.
 * 2005 Ski descent by Jørgen Aamot (Norway) and Frederik Ericsson (Sweden)
 * ✅ 2007 Three Italians, Karl Unterkircher, Daniele Bernasconi and Michele Compagnoni, reach the top opening a new way on the north face, in alpine style.
 * ✅ 2011 First winter ascent by Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Cory Richards in alpine style.