AI Summary
5 min readIn August 2008, a massive chunk of ice detached from a hanging glacier on K2, obliterating the fixed ropes that climbers relied on to descend the world’s second tallest mountain. Dutch mountaineer Wilco van Ruyen, who had just reached the summit after seventeen hours of climbing, arrived at the traverse above the Bottleneck to find the ropes simply gone. “Nobody could have imagined that your rope would be gone,” he recalled. “We were trapped.” What followed was a three-day ordeal in the death zone, where the body begins to shut down from oxygen deprivation, and a series of cascading failures that would make the 2008 K2 disaster the deadliest single event in the mountain’s history.
The mountain that tries to kill you
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:03) **The Stage is Set: K2’s Savage Reputation** - The episode opens with a vivid description of K2’s location in the Karakoram range and its fearsome reputation, including a 1953 quote from climber George Bell calling it a “savage mountain that tries to kill you.”
- 2 (04:10) **Wilco van Ruyen’s First-Hand Account** - Dutch climber Wilco van Ruyen describes the shock of finding the ropes completely gone, leaving the climbers trapped high on the mountain.
- 3 (07:06) **The Backlog at Base Camp** - On July 13, 2008, eight separate expedition teams are stuck at K2 base camp due to weeks of bad weather, creating a tense atmosphere of frustration and dwindling hope.
- 4 (10:31) **The Weather Window Opens** - The forecast suddenly improves, predicting almost no wind on the summit for July 31—the last and best opportunity of the season, prompting a rapid mobilization of all teams.
- 5 (13:01) **Wilco’s Previous K2 Disaster** - In 1985, Wilco’s first attempt on K2 ended disastrously when he was almost killed by a rockfall, breaking bones in his face and arm and losing significant blood.
- 6 (15:17) **Building the Right Team** - Wilco’s second attempt in 2006 failed due to a lack of team cohesion, so for 2008 he hand-picks a crack squad of elite climbers he trusts, including longtime partner Cass van de Gevel, Irishman Gerard McDonnell, and Nepalese Sherpa Pemba Gyalje.
- 7 (19:07) **The Summit Push and the Bottleneck Jam** - The climb is slower than anticipated due to a “traffic jam” of 30 climbers, and at the base of the steep “bottleneck” couloir, they find the advanced team hasn’t finished fixing ropes.
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Show Notes
Catastrophe unfolds on one of the deadliest mountains on Earth - the mighty K2. When a massive ice fall hits the peak and their ascent spirals into chaos, Wilco van Rooijen and his teammates will find themselves trapped at extreme altitude in the ‘Death Zone’. But it’s not just the dizzying heights that Wilco must contend with. When a hasty decision robs him of one of his senses, he will be forced to make a drastic, death-defying choice…
A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.
Written by Joe Viner | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound Supervisor: Matt Peaty | Sound design by Jacob Booth | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cian Ryan-Morgan.
For more on this story read Wilco’s book Surviving K2.
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