Mongolian mountaineer G.Usukhbayar has begun his ascent of K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Rising steeply above the Karakoram Range along the Pakistan-China border and battered by atrocious weather, this pyramid-shaped mountain has always been the ultimate challenge for the world’s best mountaineers—and the graveyard of many of their ambitions.

G.Usukhbayar began climbing the world’s deadliest mountain on 16th of June. Bad weather forced most of mountaineers to quit their attempts, but, G.Usukhbayar refused to give up has been continuing his bid to climb the 8,611-metre peak. He is planning to reach a mountain’s summit on 26th and 27th of July. Most of the teams had left the base camp when an avalanche struck on 17th of July, resulting in many of them turning back. 

G.Usukhbayar has experience of having successfully climbed Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside Asia. He is also the second Mongolian mountaineer to take on ‘Killer’ K2 after B.Gangaamaa, a state honoured athlete tried to climb the mountain in July, 2013. The mountain won and B.Gangaamaa had to abandon his attempt at 7000 meters.

K2 is 239 meters lower than Everest, but more deadly. The statistics say it all: each year, 5 percent of all climbers who take on Everest are killed in the attempt; for K2 it is 25 percent!