Picture of the mountain covered with snow and ice and clouds above it.

How an all-Nepali team pulled off one of the most dangerous climbs in history

Driven by national pride, 10 elite mountaineers united to make it the top of K2 in the dead of winter

Rising more than two miles from the base of its glacier to its summit, Pakistan’s K2 is known as the Savage Mountain. For every four climbers who make it to the top and back, another dies trying. No one had summited it in winter. Says Nirmal “Nims” Purja, “We were trying to show the world that the impossible was possible.”
Photograph by SANDRO GROMEN-HAYES
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