Popular as the adventurous, breathtaking and awe-inspiring mountain, K2 is the second highest Mountain in the world, standing 8,611 meters above sea level. This mountain is famous for not letting climbers to climb it with ease. Climbing K2 is a decisive challenge, even for the most experienced and skilled climbers, and for this reason, we plan to keep our team size small and comprised of qualified climbers, supported by some of the best climbing Sherpa’s and mountain guides in the world.

Unlike on Everest, because the weather and route conditions are notoriously fickle on K2, we must be prepared to take advantage of very brief periods of good weather. Rock fall and snow avalanches are common on the route following K2’s Abruzzi ridge, making it often unsafe to climb or camp (as evidenced by the 2013 tragedy), and the monolithic ice cliff which overhangs the “bottleneck” and “traverse” portions of the route on summit day sheds ice frequently (as evidenced by the 2008 tragedy), so taking advantage of good route conditions and moving quickly are paramount.

8000- meter peaks such as Everest, Cho Oyu, and Manaslu are now frequented by commercial operators coordinating together to set the fixed ropes, therefore sharing this workload, however since K2 is undeveloped we will likely be working alone or with only one other team to set the fixed lines. Additionally, relying on support from other teams for help is not available so we must be self-sufficient throughout.

Destination Holiday Trek employs many porters to ferry our expedition loads to base camp. The trek to K2 base camp is more than twice the distance as the trek to Everest base camp (south side) and is considerably more arduous being mostly on glacier and loose rock. There are no villages or lodges as on the Everest trek, so we must transport our entire camp kit by porters each day as we move our caravan towards base camp.

Each porter on hire requires an additional porter to carry food and personal items, so we have a small army making our way up and down the Baltoro glacier. It is very important to differentiate ourselves from other operators in that we have a very nice base camp, with large common tents with heating for dining and communications, and comfortable personal tents for each member. Being here for almost 2 months, it is important for our team to have a comfortable camp, as well as to have access to the internet via a satellite modem (this cost is not free to all members). We will provide modern VHF radios for communications on the mountain, and each member is issued their own radio. We’ll also make satellite phones available to members.

Above base camp (16,300’) we have 5 camps: advanced Base camp (17,400’), camp 1 (19,900), camp 2 (21,980’), camp 3 (23,800), and camp 4 (25,300’). Unlike many teams who share tents in various camps, we have our own dedicated tents in each camp that are preset to reserve our space at the beginning of the season. One should note that at camp1 and camp 2 there is only space for 6-8 tents maximum, so if you arrive late in the season you must share a tent with another team that already has their camp established if you wish to use that camp. Much of the route leading up to camp 4 is on steep snow or ice slopes; however, there is also significant rock. Portions of the route such as House’s Chimney and the black pyramid involve sustained periods of vertical rock climbing, so one should be well versed using crampons on steep rock at high altitude.

Destination Holiday trek has special exports who can explain with details about the K2 expedition. Our plan is to climb partway up the route reaching Camp 3 to acclimatize before making our summit rotation. For details regarding our acclimatization and Oxygen strategy please contact our office.

On summit day we begin the gradual ascent of “the shoulder” on hard snow and ice leading up to the bottleneck, a rock and snow climb under the looming ridge. Next is the “traverse” which is mostly front pointing, and then the upper snow slopes leading to K2’s summit, where we are often breaking trail through knee-deep snow. The view from the top is just unbelievable…!
Individual seeking to summit the K2 Expedition in Pakistan need the help of an experienced and professional Travel Agency. We are the only agency who has plenty of experienced when it comes to K2 expedition. We have an experienced Expedition guides special for K2, and who has lead clients from all over the world, and form neighboring countries as well.

Destination Holiday Treks and Expedition provide full board and support services to the K2 expedition with a 1:1 ration of climbers and Sherpa guides. Everything you need at base camps is provided. We have the expertise and experience in high altitude mountaineering and take your safety very seriously. We do not take unnecessary risks. Our guides are all experience high-altitude climbers and due to this we have a high success rate on reaching the summit.