The 2008 K2 Disaster

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Few mountains inspire both awe and dread quite like K2. Standing in the shadow of Everest's fame yet claiming a far deadlier reputation, the world's second-highest peak demands respect—one climber dies for every four who summit. During a fateful expedition in August 2008, that grim statistic would manifest in the mountain's deadliest single incident.

After weeks of waiting for weather to clear, an international group of 25 climbers from multiple expeditions made their summit push on August 1st. What began with perfect climbing conditions unraveled into chaos when fixed ropes at the notorious "Bottleneck" section were swept away by falling ice. As darkness fell, climbers found themselves stranded in the punishing "death zone" above 26,000 feet—where oxygen deprivation progressively impairs judgment, coordination, and eventually, survival itself.

The following days witnessed extraordinary acts of heroism alongside devastating tragedy. Sherpas made repeated rescue attempts for stranded climbers. Some survivors endured unimaginable conditions, including one who survived 60 hours without supplemental oxygen before being airlifted off the mountain. Others displayed profound altruism, like climber Ger McDonnell, who likely perished while attempting to free entangled Korean climbers rather than saving himself. By the time the mountain quieted, eleven lives had been claimed—leaving behind conflicting survivor accounts and families desperate for answers that would never fully come.

Join us as we examine what went wrong during K2's darkest hours, piecing together the fragmented stories of those who lived to tell the tale and honoring those who didn't. If you've ever wondered about the psychological and physical limits humans face in Earth's most extreme environments, this episode reveals both our remarkable resilience and ultimate vulnerability against nature's most formidable landscapes.

Share your thoughts on this episode by leaving a review or reaching us at [e-mail]. Follow us on social media to join the conversation about history's most compelling disasters.

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Nothing gets you higher than climbing a mountain,
and if you want to get reallyhigh, you gotta go to K2.
While it's not as tall as MountEverest, it is a much harder
climb.
Roughly one person has died onK2 for every four climbers who
have reached the summit.
You have to climb anothermountain before you can actually

(00:22):
get to K2.
At this point, you're alreadydoing too much, as well as
accomplishing more than mostpeople ever will.
So just stop and go home.
Seriously, at this point in theclimb, shit just gets worse,
and for one expedition to thesummit of K2 in 2008, shit got

(00:44):
much worse and 11 climbers wouldnever leave the mountain again.
So what happened?
I'm Andrew and this isHistory's A Disaster.
Tonight we're getting high aswe climb into the disaster that

(01:05):
befell an expedition to climbthe K2 Mountain, which is in the
Karakoram Mountain Range, whichruns along the border of
Pakistan and China.
The climbing season for K2normally runs from June to
August, but shitty weather inJune and July of 2008 stopped
anyone from making the attempt.

(01:26):
Since no attempts could be made, an expedition sponsored by the
Norik Company made good use ofthe time to acclimate to the
weather and set up camps higherand higher on the mountain range
as they waited for the weatherto clear up.
By July 31st, the expeditionwas now made up of 25 climbers

(01:47):
from different teams from aroundthe world USA, norway, france,
serbia, south Korea along withsome Sherpas from Nepal and an
international team sponsored bythe Dutch company Norit, along
with Pakistani high altitudeporters and a group composed of
solo climbers were waiting atCamp 4 for the weather to clear

(02:11):
up so they could push on to thesummit of K2.
When the weather cleared onAugust 1st, they all decided to
work together to set fixed ropesand climb the rest of the way
up.
The weather that day was warmand perfect for the climb.
The team staggered theirdeparture times so they didn't
get crowded up on the mountain.
The first team, who was supposedto go ahead of the rest and put

(02:34):
in the fixed ropes, wassupposed to head out at midnight
.
They did not.
They chose to stay in theirtents.
So one of the Sherpas, pemba,along with solo climber Alberto
Serran and a few of the moreexperienced climbers, took it
upon themselves to do it.
They were way behind scheduleand in their rush, put in fixed

(02:55):
ropes very early in the climb,which meant they would not have
enough rope for later during theharder sections of the climb.
Have enough rope for laterduring the harder sections of
the climb, so they had to goback down to get more rope
before continuing.
This slowed the entire climbway down, which caused the whole
group to come to a stop at thearea known as the bottleneck

(03:17):
while they waited for the fixedropes to be secured.
The bottleneck is a rockcorridor 27,000 feet up, which
just happens to be under anoverhang of Siroc, which is a
large block of ice.
Climbers are exposed and haveto move over 600 feet while
exposed to the Siroc, whichcould break loose at any moment.

(03:39):
This whole area is very steepand highly dangerous.
Most deaths on K2 occur in thisarea.
It's also the quickest andeasiest route to the summit, a
little more than a thousand feetaway.
While climbing this area, theclimbers used ice screws to

(04:01):
secure ropes up through thebottleneck and along the route
they used to traverse under thisrock.
While they were waiting tocontinue up the mountain, many
of the climbers took to therocks to take a break as they
waited.
During the wait, one of theSerbian climbers, dren Mandic,
unclipped his rope and attemptedto pass another climber.

(04:21):
He slipped and slid down themountainside.
They all breathed a sigh ofrelief when he stopped and stood
up to wave at the group nowhigh above him.
Then he slipped again.
He fell another 600 feet downthe cliff.
When his Serbian teammates camedown to help and reached him,
it was already too late.
Dren had died from headinjuries during the fall.

(04:44):
The Serbians wanted to take hisbody all the way back to base
camp, but compromised when theothers talked them out of it and
settled on going back to Campcamp, but compromised when the
others talked them out of it andsettled on going back to camp 4
to bury him.
During the descent, jihan Bagh,one of the porters from
Pakistan, slipped and nearlytook out the entire group,
taking the body down.

(05:05):
He was clinging to a rope thathad become entangled in the
group and was endangeringeveryone as he slid down,
picking up speed, before hefinally released the rope and
disappeared over a cliff.
After the accident, the decisionwas made to continue on to the
summit.
It was getting late in the dayand they had to go 600 feet from

(05:27):
the top.
One of the Norwegian climbers,rolf, unhappy with the way the
climb is going, backs out andturns around to head back to
camp by 3.30 that afternoon.
Alberto would be the first oneto reach the summit, well ahead
of everyone else.
It would take over four hoursfor the rest of the climbers to
reach the summit.

(05:47):
The Italian team would be thelast of the 18 climbers to reach
the summit, at just after 7.30.
But now that they reached thetop, the easy part was over.
Now they had to get back down,and the sun is setting.
Alberto would be the first tomake it back down safely,

(06:09):
followed by the Norwegian team,who would meet back up with
Ralph on the climb back down tothe fixed ropes.
Within 15 minutes of reachingthe ropes, darkness descends,
and if it wasn't bad enough thatthey were in what's called the
death zone, with the sun goingdown, they would have to rely on
helmet lamps to see in the dark.
Now this death zone is any areaabove 26,000 feet.

(06:33):
The oxygen is so thin that itis not enough for anyone to
survive for an extended lengthof time.
While in the death zone, you'reconstantly being deprived of
oxygen, which fucks with yourbrain, making it hard to think
and make decisions, and thelonger you're there, the worse
it gets.
Your body literally starts tobreak down and fill with fluids,

(06:57):
your brain and lungs swell up,which makes it hard to move and
harder to breathe and eventuallyyou'll cease to function at all
.
And if you get fucked up badenough and no one thinks it's
safe to help, you get leftbehind to die.
Now, as the Norwegians traversedunder the Serac, ralph led the

(07:17):
way.
He was 80 feet in front of therest of the group.
As they moved, the groundrumbled and shook.
Ice breaking loose, slid downthe mountain and struck Ralph,
sending him falling down themountainside.
The rest of the Norwegians Ralf, sending him falling down the
mountainside, the rest of theNorwegians, including Ralf's
wife, had to watch helplessly ashe disappeared into the

(07:37):
darkness.
With no time to grieve, theyhad to work their way slowly
down the slopes to reach Camp 4without the use of the fixed
ropes.
The avalanche of ice from theSerac had wiped away the fixed
ropes.
The rest of the climbers nearthe summit had to make their way
down slowly to above the Seracand regroup.

(07:58):
They were tired and exhaustedfrom the climb up.
There was a panic and a momentof fear as the group looked
around for the fixed ropes.
They were nowhere to be found.
There was a growing fear thatthey had gotten lost in the dark
and were on the wrong side ofthe mountain when they could not
find them.

(08:18):
So they made the decision tostop there and rest for the
night.
During this descent, one of theclimbers, cass, chose to keep
going.
After passing one of the Frenchclimbers, he came to the end of
the line and continued to climbdown, using his ice axe and
crampons to descend.
As he was going down, themountain rumbled and Hughes, the

(08:41):
Frenchman he passed, wentsliding down past him out of
control.
Pemba and two of the otherSherpas in the group also
decided to make for Camp 4.
They left behind the remainingeight climbers as they made
their own descent down safely.
During the night.
The remaining members of theKorean team had become entangled

(09:01):
in their ropes and were hangingoff the side of the mountain.
A small avalanche of ice hadknocked them down and sent them
sliding to a small shelf of ice.
They were left hanging there,still attached to an anchor
point above them.
They had survived the fall butwere injured and trapped.
They refused to go any further.
By daybreak, everyone at Camp 4could see the remaining climbers

(09:25):
above the top of the Serac.
Attempts were made to call themby radio, but they got no
response.
The radio had not been turnedon.
Now this group was convincedthey would find the fixed ropes
once it was light out.
They searched and searched, butto no avail.
One of them, wilco, started topanic and feared he was losing

(09:46):
his vision to snow blindness,which would have been damn near
a death sentence at that height.
No one would be able to helphim.
So, without thinking or asecond thought, he started to
make his own way down.
As he made his descent, hepassed three of the South
Koreans hanging in the group.
One of them had lost theirgloves in the fall and borrowed

(10:08):
a spare pair.
The Koreans refused to move anyfurther, fully expecting
someone to come rescue them.
Wilco would continue on hisdescent and eventually become
lost.
He ended up stopping andcalling his wife on his
satellite phone and would end upbeing trapped on the mountain
for another night.
Down at Camp 4, the South Koreanteam leader Kim was trying to

(10:32):
arrange a rescue mission for hislost Koreans.
The others had to tell him thatthat was just not possible.
The team was only gettingweaker in the high climate and
physically taking them off themountain was impossible, and it
was time to move down from Camp4.
But Mr Kim was persistent andordered the two Sherpas, with

(10:53):
the Korean team, to rescue thethree Koreans.
By this time two of theclimbers, marco and Jer, had
reached the three Koreans.
One of them was seriouslyinjured.
The snow around them wascovered in blood.
Marco, one of the Italians,contacted Camp 4 with a radio he

(11:17):
had found with their Koreansand requested help for them
before attempting his owndescent down.
Jer refused to go down themountain and climbed back up,
possibly to attempt to releasethe anchor points holding the
Korean team.
Trapped.
During Marco's descent, hewould barely miss getting hit in
another avalanche of ice thatcame down behind him.

(11:38):
The two Sherpas sent up by Kimwould find him alive but
unconscious, at the base of thebottleneck.
They could not stop to bringhim down and no one else would
volunteer to go up, so Pembatook it upon himself to go.
While he was there with Marco,another call came in over the
radio.
The Sherpas had reached the topof the bottleneck and were just

(12:00):
beneath the Serac.
They had found the threemissing Koreans, but another
climber had been hit by ice andfell.
It was unclear which climberfell, but it is believed to have
been Jer.
After the call, the wind pickedup, causing more ice to break
loose.
Two more bodies came fallingdown and stopped not far from

(12:21):
Pemba.
It was two of the Sherpas fromthe Korean team, pasang and
Jumik Boat.
They were cousins.
One had been trapped on themountain, the other had been
sent out to rescue them.
Neither survived the fall.
The rest of the survivingclimbers would eventually climb
back down to camp four andslowly work their way down to

(12:43):
the other camps.
By August 4th, the Pakistanimilitary had been called in and
launched a rescue operation.
Cass, wilco and Marco were allairlifted by helicopter off the
mountain.
Cass and Marco had made it tocamp too.
When they were picked up, theywould have to pull the
coordinates from Wilco'ssatellite phone to find him on

(13:04):
the mountain in order to get himout.
He had survived for 60 hours inthe death zone without oxygen
before being rescued.
Everyone except one of theporters was accounted for.
Maharban Karim was believed tohave been suffering altitude
sickness and stumbled onto theSerac during an ice fall and

(13:24):
disappeared Later.
In the hospitals.
Marco and Wilco would lose allof their toes to frostbite, but
they would eventually return toclimbing, while Marco was one of
the first ones off and able tospeak to the press.
His story would become theofficial story of what happened,
even though his story would goon and constantly change over

(13:45):
time on what exactly happened onthe mountain.
Every single other survivorwould have different versions of
what happened, which left manyof the families of those that
died with questions, and itwasn't until Pemba stepped up
that they would get answers tosome of them.
The main ones asking thequestions was the family of Jer
McDonald, who had refused tocome down the mountain.

(14:09):
After speaking with Pemba, it isnow believed that he refused to
leave so that he could help theKoreans.
He was the only one still upthere that could have helped
free them from the routes theyhad become entangled with and
led them down under the Seracwhere they met up with the
rescue team before ultimatelylosing his life to an icefall.
And that was the K2 disaster of2008.

(14:41):
With all the different andoften contradictory stories of
what happened, we will probablynever know the truth of what
exactly happened on the mountainthat day, but either way, the
fact remains it is the singledeadliest accident to happen on
K2.
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(15:03):
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