National Geographic Special - The World\'s Most Beautiful Places

125 STARK & WILD

KARAKORAM RANGE,

PAKISTAN/CHINA

K2, said climber Fosco Maraini, is “all rock,

ice, storm and abyss, all atoms and stars . . .

with the nakedness of the world before the

first human, or of the cindered planet after

the last.” No matter its humble name, coined

by 19th-century British surveyors, and no

matter that at 28,251 feet (8,611 m) it is the

world’s second highest peak, 778 feet (237 m)

lower than Everest. With its classic, pyramidal

profile and the grandeur of its immense rock

walls, it yields to no mountain in its majesty.

DON’T MISS

Travel by helicopter over three days, following the

route of a trek that normally takes 11 days, and then

fly among the Karakoram’s peaks, with direct views

of K2 and the Baltoro Glacier, the world’s second

largest glacier outside the Poles.

K2 in the Himalaya is the world’s second highest

mountain, after Mount Everest.

k2