What Killed 13 Elite Climbers On K2 Is Terrifying

Name: What Killed 13 Elite Climbers On K2 Is Terrifying
Uploaded: 2026-08-23T02:39:11+00:00
Duration: 31 min 38 s
Channel: eXtreme

00:00They left him alive in the tent, still breathing.

00:03August 10th, 1986, Camp 4, K2, 26,000 feet.

00:09Five climbers who could still stand had to decide if saving him meant losing all of them.

00:15Welcome to the extreme edge, where the stakes are high, but nobody's just a headline.

00:20On the morning of August 10th, 1986, Kurt Diemberger unzipped his tent at 26,000 feet

00:26and looked out into an absolute nightmare of hail and snow and wind moving sideways at over 100 miles an

00:33hour.

00:34Snow that had not stopped falling in four days.

00:37And somehow what was going on in that tent and two others pitched a few feet away

00:42was even worse than the chaos outside.

00:45Because right there were seven of the best mountaineers alive, completely trapped.

00:50Their stove had run out of fuel days earlier.

00:53That meant no hot food and no way to melt snow into drinking water.

00:56They were dying slowly.

00:58One climber could no longer even stand without help.

01:01And another was coughing so violently that every breath sounded like she was drowning.

01:05That moment in the tent is where this story ends.

01:09To understand how things got there, we have to go back six weeks.

01:1217,600 feet at K2 Base Camp.

01:16Kurt was the only man on Earth to have made first ascents of two separate 26,000 foot peaks.

01:21And next to him, every step of the way, was Julie Tullis.

01:26The two of them called themselves the highest film team in the world.

01:29K2 was supposed to be the third mountain they filmed together.

01:32They didn't know it was going to be the last for one of them.

01:35When Kurt and Julie looked around the Base Camp, they realized they'd never seen anything quite like it.

01:40This wasn't the quiet collection of two or three expedition tents they were used to seeing on the world's biggest

01:46mountains.

01:46No, this looked like a village.

01:49Bright tents stretched across nearly a mile of broken glacier.

01:53Radios crackled in English, Polish, Italian, French, German, and Japanese.

02:00Climbers wandered between camps, borrowing gear, swapping weather reports, and sharing cups of tea.

02:05Everywhere Kurt looked, he recognized somebody.

02:09By sheer coincidence, Kurt and Julie had arrived just in time to document a record-breaking season on camera.

02:15Because in a normal year, this remote and so terrifying mountain only sees one or two teams all season.

02:23But this summer, the Pakistani government had issued an unprecedented number of climbing permits.

02:28There were nine separate expeditions all crammed together in the same freezing valley.

02:33All here at once, planning to go after the same mountain and the same short window of good weather.

02:39Some of them were climbing very light, while others were eyeing new routes never attempted before.

02:45Crowded spaces, new routes, and lots of pressure.

02:48Doesn't take a rocket scientist to put together that something is going to go wrong soon.

02:53And on the morning of June 21st, something did.

02:57An American expedition of nine climbers from the Pacific Northwest, led by a 35-year-old named

03:03John Smolik, was gearing up to do something legendary.

03:07They hadn't traveled all the way to Pakistan just to wait in line on the crowded Standard

03:12Path.

03:12No, they were steering down a completely unclimbed route, known as the Magic Line.

03:17The Magic Line is basically a brutal skyscraper obstacle course of rock and ice.

03:22And attempting to climb it is like trying to climb a steep, slippery roof with smooth, vertical

03:28brick walls every few hundred feet.

03:31Just a few years earlier, Reinhold Messner, arguably the greatest mountaineer alive, had

03:36scouted this exact route, publicly walked away, and called any attempt to climb it impossible.

03:43But John Smolik and his 34-year-old teammate, Alan Pennington, they didn't agree with him.

03:47They wanted to do the impossible.

03:49And by the third week of the season, John and Alan had successfully pushed their way

03:54up the lower slopes, to about 20,000 feet.

03:57They were exactly where they needed to be, and by roughly 5.50 that morning, John and Alan

04:03were moving beneath the Negrado Coal.

04:05It doesn't look especially frightening on a map, but in real life, it's one of those

04:10places on K2 where you spend as little time as possible.

04:13See, K2 is a very steep mountain.

04:16Instead of long, gentle snow slopes like Everest, K2 forces climbers directly under huge walls

04:24of loose rock frozen together by ice and snow.

04:27As the morning sun warms those cliffs, or even as temperatures naturally change, that frozen

04:33glue begins to weaken.

04:35And once something breaks loose, the one direction it can go is straight down.

04:40Sometimes it's a few loose rocks, sometimes it's an entire section of the mountain.

04:45And that morning, that's exactly what happened.

04:48High above the two men on the morning of June 21st, 1986, a single boulder broke loose from

04:54the upper slopes of the mountain.

04:55And as it crashed down without warning, it smashed into the snowpack beneath it, ripping

05:01an entire sheet of snow and ice away from the slope.

05:04Within seconds, what started as one falling rock had become a full avalanche, racing straight

05:10toward both men under the Negrado Coal before either of them had time to move.

05:15There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run to, the debris violently swept both men completely

05:21off the face of the mountain.

05:22Climbers from a nearby team who saw what happened immediately rushed to the area to search for

05:28them.

05:28And about three hours later, they managed to dig Alan Pennington's body out of the snow.

05:33But the avalanche had hit with such incredible force that John Smolik was entombed deep inside

05:38the ice.

05:39His remains are on K2, somewhere.

05:42Their deaths were the first of the season, and I'll be honest with you, no one was surprised.

05:47After all, they were deliberately attempting one of the most dangerous, unclimbed routes on

05:52one of the most dangerous mountains in the world.

05:54What happened there was tragic, sure, but it also made sense.

05:58The surviving Americans packed up their camp and went home, but for the dozens of other

06:03climbers at base camp that season who heard the news, the logic was, we are taking the

06:08normal route.

06:09That won't happen to us.

06:11They couldn't have been more wrong.

06:13Because the normal route they were talking about is called the Abruzi Spur.

06:17It flows up through the north side of the mountain, and it's the path almost every

06:21climber who's successfully reached the top of K2 has taken.

06:25But calling the Abruzi Spur normal is like calling a great white shark a normal fish.

06:30The Abruzi itself is a long rib of rock that runs almost straight up the side of the mountain.

06:35Imagine climbing the spine of a giant pyramid.

06:39To make progress, climbers have to pull themselves up near vertical rock chimneys, cross steep slopes

06:45of hard blue ice, and edge along narrow ledges with thousands of feet of empty air beneath

06:52their boots.

06:53It was slow and exhausting.

06:56But compared to the magic line and other options, this was the safest way up and down.

07:01Or, at least, it was supposed to be.

07:03Two days later, on June 23rd, the Abruzi Spur was packed with climbers chasing exactly that

07:10kind of safe, historic summit.

07:13And for a few hours, it actually looked like the safe option was the right option.

07:18Slowly, rope by rope, these climbers worked their way higher.

07:22It was hard, boring work, but everything was going according to plan, and among the climbers

07:28making steady progress that day, was a French couple named Maurice and Lillianne Berard.

07:33Maurice was already one of France's strongest alpinists.

07:36Lillianne was every bit as determined.

07:39Together, they had spent years climbing some of the hardest mountains in Europe.

07:43Friends described them as inseparable, and they called themselves the world's highest

07:48couple.

07:48If one signed up for an expedition, the other usually wasn't far behind.

07:53And K2 wasn't supposed to be any different, because unlike the Americans, the Berards

07:58were moving with the fixed ropes already in place, climbing steadily from camp to camp,

08:04just like dozens of other climbers around them.

08:07And there were dozens of other climbers climbing this way, because the thing about climbing K2

08:11is, you don't just walk straight up to the 28,251 foot summit in one shot.

08:17Nobody's body can handle that.

08:19So the mountain gets broken up into a handful of camps, stacked up the route like rest stops

08:24on a really, really long staircase.

08:27On June 23rd, the Berards were moving up with real purpose, they'd already been on

08:32the mountain for weeks.

08:33This was the summit push, and around 30 minutes past 12, they finally did it.

08:38Lillianne was the second woman in history to ever stand on K2.

08:42Her husband Maurice was right there with her too.

08:44Everything the Berards had worked for these past few months had finally paid off exactly

08:50the way it was supposed to.

08:51It must have been one of the best feelings in the world.

08:54But standing on the summit is really only half the job, and the Berards had done a lot

08:59to get up here.

09:00The night before, at the highest camp, Maurice and Lillian hadn't actually slept, because

09:04their tents up there had no proper sleeping bags to go with it.

09:07So instead of resting the way every climber's supposed to before the hardest day of the

09:11entire expedition, the Berards spent that whole night awake, shivering, just trying to

09:16hold on to whatever body heat they had left.

09:19Standing up there at half past noon, arms raised, cameras out, Lillianne and Maurice felt all

09:25those inconveniences were worth it, and maybe to them it was, but it also meant their bodies

09:30were already running on a debt of no real rest.

09:33And because of the excitement and adrenaline involved, a debt like that doesn't show up

09:38on the way up.

09:39It shows up when it's time to come down on the exact terrain that punishes tired climbers

09:44the most.

09:45They started down that afternoon, after 12.30, by using the same fixed rope they'd just climbed

09:51up with, and they weren't alone.

09:53Three other climbers, a Frenchman named Michel Parmentier, and two Spanish climbers, Maria

09:59Abrigo and Josema Casimiro, were also coming down that day from that same summit push.

10:05And somewhere on the way down, the weather turned on them, and conditions got so bad that all five

10:11climbers were forced to create a makeshift shelter right away on the upper slopes of K2.

10:17It sounds fancy, but what it really means is carving a shallow hole in the snow, sitting down,

10:22and praying you don't freeze to death before the sun comes back up.

10:26They all somehow survived that freezing night outside, but when morning finally arrived,

10:32things didn't get better.

10:33The weather was just horrible.

10:35Visibility was so bad, you couldn't even see the person a few feet in front of you.

10:39The group started blindly picking their way down the mountain anyway, because

10:43staying here meant certain death.

10:46Sadly, in the chaos of the blowing snow on the way down, it happened.

10:50Maurice and Lillianne Barrard separated from the group.

10:53That's genuinely as specific as the record gets.

10:57It's impossible to say what happened, because there was no last radio call or call for help.

11:03It's as if the mountains just decided they weren't leaving.

11:06When Michel Parmentier made it down, he raised the alarm, sure.

11:10But there was absolutely no rescue coming, because, I mean, what was there to rescue?

11:15Even he had no idea where they got separated.

11:17And this was 1986.

11:19There wasn't exactly high-tech rescue equipment then.

11:22Lillianne's body was discovered weeks later, thousands of feet below at the foot of the mountain.

11:27The ice swallowed Maurice, and his remains wouldn't be found till much later.

11:32What happened in their final moments isn't something any report can answer.

11:37What we do know is that four of the most elite climbers in the world were dead in less than

11:42three weeks.

11:42And look, while everyone knew K2 was the savage mountain with a death rate of something like

11:47one death through every four successful summits, a number that had scared away plenty of climbers,

11:53no climber had quite ever seen a season like this one.

11:56Four of the world's best climbers were now dead, and the season wasn't even a month old.

12:02They had no idea things were about to get worse.

12:05You would think that after losing the Americans on the magic line and watching the Burrards disappear

12:11from the so-called safe route, the rest of the mountain would have packed up and gone home.

12:16But two climbers from a Polish expedition weren't paying attention to the Abruzzi Spur at all.

12:20They were looking at a different side of the mountain entirely.

12:23Their names were Jerzy Kukuchka and Tadusz Piotrowski, and they had their eyes on K2's south face.

12:29And if the Abruzzi Spur is K2's staircase, the south face is its front wall, nearly two miles long

12:35and made of loose rock and hanging ice. There was no fixed rope on this route because it had never

12:41been climbed. Every single foot of progress had to be earned by hand, with an ice axe and crampons

12:47on ground so steep that anything that came loose dropped straight down like a paper thrown off a flat

12:54table. Attempting it was extremely dangerous. Jerzy and Tadusz did anyway. Jerzy was on a legendary

13:00quest to climb all 14 of the world's tallest mountains, and K2 would be his 12th. And Tadusz

13:06was already one of the most respected winter climbers alive. This was yet another awesome addition to his

13:12record if he succeeded. And they didn't go big. Most expeditions on K2 that summer were using multiple

13:19camps, extra climbers, and stockpiled gear staged up the mountain in advance. Jerzy and Tadusz chose to

13:27climb the south face, alpine style, with no bottled oxygen and carrying only what they could fit on

13:34their backs. The only gear they shared was a 70-foot rope between them for the entire wall. And they

13:39actually did it. On July 8th at 6.25 in the evening, after days of climbing, the two of them

13:46fought their way

13:47up that sheer face and reached the summit of K2. It was the first ascent of the south face in

13:53history.

13:53It was such a monumental, terrifying achievement. In fact, this route has never been repeated to this

14:00day. This was the best story on the mountain all season. All they had to do now was come back

14:06down.

14:06Except, coming down wasn't as simple as retracing their steps. The south face they'd just fought their

14:13way up wasn't built for descending. So Jerzy and Tadusz decided to descend through the standard

14:19Abruzi spur instead. On paper, it sounded like the safest way home. The problem was that by the

14:26time they reached the Abruzi, neither man had much left to give it. They'd already been climbing for

14:32days on the south face, with no proper rest, no bottled oxygen, and only whatever food and water

14:38they'd been able to carry on their backs. This was two men running on fumes, hoping the easier route

14:44would be enough to get them the rest of the way home. On July 10th, still descending the Abruzi,

14:49they eventually reached this terrifyingly steep section of what climbers call bulletproof ice at

14:56around 26,000 feet. The ice here is so ancient and hard that it feels like a sheet of solid

15:01glass.

15:02You have to kick it with all your remaining strength just to leave a scratch.

15:06To get down a slope like this safely, you need a rope. Today, Jerzy asked Jerzy for their shared rope,

15:12so they could carefully lower themselves down. And that is when Jerzy realized he didn't have it.

15:18In his extreme, mind-numbing exhaustion, he accidentally left the rope behind at their last

15:24makeshift camp down at the south face. They were standing above a sheared drop with absolutely no

15:30safety net. Their only option was to climb down the slick ice, relying only on what they were wearing,

15:37a piece of gear called crampons. These are heavy metal frames with razor-sharp spikes that strap

15:44tightly to the bottom of your climbing boots. When you kick into a wall of ice, those spikes bite in

15:50and act like tiny metal platforms for you to stand on. Because they didn't have a rope, those straps

15:56were the only things keeping them attached to the mountain. Jerzy carefully climbed down the ice first,

16:03testing each foothold before trusting his weight to it. Calling back up to Tadeusz to move slightly left,

16:09toward a patch of ice that looked marginally less brutal than the rest. Tadeusz started down behind him,

16:16and then Jerzy heard a strange sound up there. When he looked up, he saw Tadeusz mid-air, arms out,

16:24like he was still trying to grab onto something that wasn't there anymore. One of his crampons had

16:29come loose from his boot, and when he shifted his weight onto his other foot to compensate,

16:34that crampon came off too. Nothing was holding him to the mountain anymore. Before Jerzy could even react,

16:40he was gone. He could only watch as his climbing partner of years, a man he stood on the summit

16:47of K2 with,

16:48less than 48 hours earlier, disappeared down the slope and out of sight, and then there was nothing to hear

16:55except wind. It took Jerzy more than 5 hours to cover what should have been a short stretch of ground.

17:01By the time

17:02he reached the tents of a Korean team lower on the route, he could barely speak. They gave him what

17:08they had,

17:08and Jerzy collapsed. He slept for 20 straight hours. Tadeusz Piotrowski was never found. Not that day,

17:17not in the search that followed. The mountain that had just let two men make history on its south face

17:23had taken one of them back within 48 hours of the summit. But just six days later, K2 proved that

17:30it

17:30didn't even matter if you played it safe. Renato Casarotto was a 38-year-old Italian climber, famous for doing

17:37things completely alone. He had spent weeks by himself trying to climb the exact same ridge that

17:43killed the Americans earlier that summer, the Magic Line. But when the weather turned bad high up on the

17:50mountain, Renato put his pride aside, played it safe, and turned around. By July 16th, he'd successfully

17:57climbed all the way back down that terrifying ridge. He was roughly an hour's walk from base camp, and just

18:0315 minutes away from completely safe ground. He was practically home. All he had to do was cross this

18:10glacier at the base of K2. The problem was that the glacier was essentially a massive, slow-moving river

18:17of ice. And because it moves, it cracks, creating deep, hidden canyons called crevasses. Imagine walking

18:25across a frozen parking lot, but underneath a thin layer of snow are trapped doors that drop straight down

18:31into 130-foot deep freezers. Renato was just minutes away from his tent when he stepped on a patch of

18:37snow that wasn't solid ground at all. The snow bridge collapsed beneath his boots, and he fell

18:42about 13 stories straight down into the icy dark. He survived the drop, lying broken at the bottom of

18:50this freezing ice cave. He somehow managed to dig a radio out of his backpack. Back at base camp, his

18:57wife,

18:57Goretta was sitting in her tent with her own radio on, waiting for him to come home. Through the crackling

19:03static, Renato whispered a message no wife should ever have to hear. Goretta, I am dying in a crevasse near

19:10base camp.

19:11A massive rescue team from the Italian, British, and German camps immediately grabbed their gear and rushed

19:17out onto the glacier. They found the crevasse, lowered ropes, and miraculously managed to haul Renato all the way back

19:24to the surface

19:25while he was still alive. But the human body is not built to survive a 13-story fall. His internal

19:32injuries were just too severe, and he died shortly after they pulled him out. Just like that, six elite

19:38climbers were now dead. They'd been killed by avalanches, exhaustion, gear failure, and crevasses across

19:46completely different parts of the mountain. Back at base camp, Kurt and Julie were watching the mountain

19:51slowly empty out. The vibrant, noisy, village-like atmosphere that had filled the glaciers just a

19:58few weeks earlier was completely gone. Teams were packing up and fleeing, but for Kurt Diemberger and

20:05Julie Tullis, turning around wasn't an option. They were the highest film team in the world. They hadn't

20:11come all this way just to film other people leaving. They were going to document the summit. So, by early

20:17August, as the rest of the mountain retreated, Kurt and Julie packed their heavy cameras, strapped on

20:23their crampons, and started the long, brutal climb up the Abruzi Spur. Their final staging ground before

20:29the top was Camp 4. It sits on this sloping, exposed plateau of ice called the Shoulder at roughly 26

20:37,000

20:38feet. At that height, the atmospheric pressure is so incredibly low, every time you take a breath,

20:43you're only getting a fraction of the oxygen you need to keep your cells alive. This place is called the

20:49Death Zone, and the golden rule here is simply get up and get out. You do not linger. But, when

20:56Kurt and

20:57Julie finally dragged themselves onto the ice of Camp 4 on August 2nd, lingering is exactly what they were

21:03forced to do. Because they weren't the only ones determined to summit, no matter what that season.

21:09Unbelievably, after weeks of bad weather and false starts, multiple independent expeditions had all

21:16funneled onto this exact same patch of ice on the exact same day. There was Alan Rouse, a brilliant

21:23British climber who'd refused to go home when his original team gave up. There was a Polish climber

21:29named Mufka. There was a South Korean team and a group of three highly experienced Austrian climbers.

21:35If this were any other place, it would have been a moment of relief to have company. Here, it was

21:40simply a logistical nightmare. The harsh weather of the previous weeks had completely destroyed the

21:45camp. Tents that had been staged up here days earlier were either ripped to shreds by the wind,

21:50or buried under tons of snow. Kurt and Julie had brought a spare tent up with them, but others

21:56weren't as proactive. So, when the sun started to go down on August 2nd, the freezing temperatures

22:03forced the climbers into a frantic scramble for survival. They began cramming themselves into

22:09whatever fragile nylon shelters were still standing. At one point, grown men were packed like sardines

22:15into a tiny tent meant for two people. Sleeping was impossible. They just laid there in the dark,

22:22shivering, breathing heavily, burning precious energy just to stay warm. And the next morning,

22:28exhausted and disorganized, the overcrowded camp made a fatal mistake. They decided to

22:34wait an extra day to rest before pushing for the summit. They burned 24 hours of perfectly good weather,

22:41but much worse, they burned through food and stove gas. They had no idea how much that would cost them.

22:48Finally, on the morning of August 4th, all climbers present pushed for the summit,

22:53with Alan Rouse leading the way from Camp 4. He broke trail through miles of deep snow, spending

22:59precious energy, but knowing what he was doing was necessary to finally make the season a success.

23:06And at 4pm, August 4th, 1986, he did it. Alan Rouse reached the top of K2. He was now the

23:13first British

23:13climber to ever summit K2, and he started coming down immediately. But Kurt and Julie had another problem

23:20to face. They weren't just climbing alone. Remember, they were here to film the top of K2.

23:26That meant carrying heavy film gear with completely exhausted, oxygen-starved bodies. They moved so

23:32slowly they didn't reach the summit until 5.30 in the evening. It was an amazing achievement, too.

23:37For one, Julie became the first British woman to summit K2. But by the time they took their photos and

23:44looked around, the sun was already dropping behind the horizon. And as quickly as they started to descend,

23:49pitch darkness took over the mountain. They were navigating one of the most dangerous mountains

23:54on Earth, completely blind. And then the inevitable happened. Julie, completely drained of energy,

24:02and losing her physical coordination, suddenly slipped. Her crampons lost their grip on the hard

24:08ice. Because they were tied together, her fall instantly jerked Kurt right off his feet. The two of

24:14them tumbled wildly down the near vertical face. Now by some absolute miracle, they didn't go over

24:20the edge. They hit a patch of softer snow and managed to stop their slide. But they were completely

24:25off the route, lost in the dark, with no way to find Camp 4. They couldn't dare continue to descend.

24:32Just like the Burrards earlier that summer, Kurt and Julie were forced to carve a tiny hole in the ice,

24:38and spend the entire night completely exposed to the open air at 27,500 feet. I don't need to tell

24:46you how dangerous that is, but they literally had no choice. And they didn't freeze to death. When the

24:52sun came up on August 5th, half frozen, battered, and completely drained, they blindly stumbled their

24:58way back to the tents at Camp 4. All the climbers were now reunited. They just needed to rest for

25:04a few

25:04hours, pack their bags, and get off the mountain. But K2 had other plans. Because just as Kurt and Julie

25:11crawled into their tent, a massive, unpredictable weather system slammed into the mountain.

25:17Winds screaming at over 100 miles an hour threatened to physically tear the nylon tents off the ice

25:23and throw them into the sky. The temperature plummeted to 40 degrees below zero. The climbers were

25:29instantly pinned down, but they had hope. Storms like this were common all season. They just needed

25:35to wait it out for maybe an afternoon or two. But this storm didn't just blow over, no. It raged

25:41for

25:42five agonizing days. Kurt and Julie's tiny tent was nearly buried by the heavy snowdrifts. They had to

25:49crawl out when the blizzards subsided a bit and force their way into the other already stuffed tents,

25:55with Allen and the Austrians just to survive. Now, seven people were trapped in a space meant for three.

26:02And by August 8th, things got even worse. Their stove gas ran out. Without gas, you can't melt snow.

26:09And at that height, the air is so thin and dry that your lungs lose massive amounts of water with

26:16every

26:16single panicked breath. A climber needs to drink roughly six liters of water a day to survive. And their

26:23only source of getting water just ran out. They were trapped in a dark, violently shaking nylon box,

26:30literally drying up from the inside out. This was the black summer. And honestly,

26:36the most desperate situation any mountain on earth can put a climber in. They could only endure that

26:42level of torture for so long. And for Julie, it was just too much. The injuries from the fall,

26:48the dehydration, the lack of hope, it all caught up with her. Her lungs slowly started to fill with fluid.

26:55Every breath from her sounded like a terrible, wet gurgle. And there was nothing, absolutely nothing,

27:02Kurt or Allen or anyone else present there could do. Sadly, around August 8th, 1986, sometime in the

27:11night, Julie, the first British woman to ever climb K2, died quietly in her sleep. Kurt Dienberger was now

27:19sitting next to the lifeless body of his closest friend. And he knew if the wind didn't stop soon,

27:25none of them were ever going home. On the morning of August 10th, the screaming wind finally stopped.

27:31After five solid days of pure hell, K2 had finally gone quiet. For the survivors trapped inside the tents,

27:39the clear skies brought a terrifying reality check. Six people were still breathing in the tents at Camp 4,

27:46but they knew if they stayed at 26,000 feet for even one more night, they would all end up

27:51exactly

27:51like Julie. They had to grab their gear and get down the mountain right now. But even as the survivors

27:57started to crawl out of the shredded tents, they realized one of them wasn't moving. Allen Rouse,

28:04the man who had broken the trail and led them all to the summit just days earlier,

28:08was completely unresponsive. The thick blood, the severe lack of oxygen, and the extreme dehydration

28:15had pushed his brain into a deep, inescapable coma. If you're on a normal hiking trail and your friend

28:21collapses, you would put your friend over your shoulder and carry him. Up at 26,000 feet, you can

28:27barely lift your own legs. Imagine trying to carry a full-grown, unconscious man down a vertical,

28:34frozen ladder over a thousand foot drop. If you try, you both fall, and you both die. So Kurt,

28:41and the remaining four climbers who could still stand, had to make a hard decision. What to do

28:47with Allen? Quick detour. Every month there's a story that never goes to YouTube. It's there if you

28:52want it. Patreon, link below. Now, where were we? Stay with Allen, knowing he would never walk down

28:59himself, or leave and save themselves. They chose to save themselves. But even as they crawled out of

29:05the tents and started down the Abrujee Spur, they didn't look like elite athletes anymore. They moved

29:11like ghosts, and the mountain they were trying to climb down wasn't the same mountain they had climbed

29:17up. Five days of blizzard had completely erased everything. The safety ropes they came up with

29:23were buried under feet of fresh, unstable snow. Every step they took in the deep powder risked

29:30triggering a massive avalanche that would sweep them all into the void, and the climbers themselves were

29:36physically ruined because they hadn't been able to melt snow for water. They were severely dehydrated,

29:42their blood had turned to sludge, and their muscles had literally started consuming themselves

29:47just to keep their vital organs warm. Just a few hundred feet away from the tents,

29:53two of the Austrian climbers, Hannes Wiese and Alfred Immetze, simply shut down. They sat down in the snow,

30:01completely out of gas, and couldn't get back up. The cold in their hearts just stopped. They died right

30:08there, practically within sight of the camp they had just left. Now, out of the seven people who had

30:15been trapped in those tents, it was just Kurt, an Austrian named Willy Bauer, and a Polish woman named

30:21Mufka. The three of them blindly came down the steep ice in a desperate, uncoordinated race against their

30:29own dying bodies. But K2 was a long, long way down, and somewhere along the fixed ropes at the lower

30:36camps,

30:36Mufka's incredible strength finally ran out too. She lost consciousness on the ropes,

30:42joining the agonizing list of those claimed by the mountain. Against all odds, fighting through

30:48hallucinations and severe frostbite, Willy Bauer managed to drag himself all the way down to base

30:54camp. He stumbled into the medical tent and immediately raised the alarm. Rescue teams still

31:00present rushed up the lower slopes and found Kurt Diemberger staggering down the ice,

31:07barely clinging to life. Kurt and Willy survived, but barely. And this wasn't the last time a climbing

31:13season would end this brutally. Because just in January 2026, on Makalu, a mountain most casual

31:21climbers have never even heard of, something happened that's honestly hard to believe actually happened.

31:26Four climbers made history on the summit. Within hours, two of them were dead. What really happened

31:32is in this next video.

What Killed 13 Elite Climbers On K2 Is Terrifying

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