Bernie EcclestonedNorwegian climber says it would have been impossible to carry injured Pakistani porter down snowy K2
HazdazI have mixed feelings about this.
One the one hand, it sounds like they DID try to save the guy for hours. And this is an incredibly dangerous thing to attempt with a shockingly high number of people dying an attempt every year. I also think everyone that attempts one of these climbs knows exactly what they are doing. The porter that died might not have been well paid by Norwegian standards, but I have little doubt that he was paid quite well for Pakistan…
… but on the other hand, this is completely unnecessary. These people are dying - whether they are a hired sherpa or a Western climber - for totally no good reason. They aren’t really exploring new lands anymore. They aren’t discovering new sources of X mineral or sailing unknown seas. Everything about this is just rich-person’s adrenaline vacation, and not something particularly important.
Everything about this is just rich-person’s adrenaline vacation
I don’t imagine I would disagree if you characterized Everest in that manner, but K2 is a much more dangerous and challenging climb than Everest. 6,871 people have summitted Everest and 310 have died climbing the mountain. Only 377 people have summitted K2 and 91 people have died climbing the mountain. People don’t attempt K2 just to have an impressive story to tell at dinner parties.