The expedition members

climb a steep edge of K2’s

North Ridge.

DEADLY SUMMIT
2.09

During the summer of 2011, a team of thousands of feet of rope. These would give the
climbers attempted to climb the world’s second expedition members places to rest during their
highest peak—K2. Their goal was to climb ascent. To establish the route, they had to cope
A
the North Ridge on the Chinese side of the with vertical rock walls, avalanches,2 and slopes
mountain without bottled oxygen or high- covered in chest-deep snow.
altitude porters.1
On August 16, the team started the actual
The team included two Kazakh climbers, an climb to the summit. Two days later, at around
Argentinian photographer, and a videographer 6:30 a.m., Ralf stopped. The snow conditions
D
from Poland. All four had attempted K2 climbs were becoming dangerous, and he could no
before, but none had yet reached the peak. The longer ignore his gut instinct.3 “Gerlinde, I am
fifth member, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, was a going back,” he said.
40-year-old former nurse from Austria. If she
B On their first climb together, Gerlinde
succeeded, she would be the first woman in
and Ralf had made an agreement: neither
history to climb all of the world’s tallest peaks
would stand in the other’s way if one wanted
without supplemental oxygen. Gerlinde was
E to continue and the other did not. Gerlinde
leading the expedition with her husband, Ralf
had never been to the top of K2, so she was
Dujmovits, 49, who had previously reached the
willing to take risks that Ralf was not. She
summit of K2 from the Pakistani side.
coped with fear differently, too. Ralf liked
Starting on July 5, the six climbers
C
established a series of camps, connected by
2
An avalanche is a mass of snow, ice, and rocks that falls down a
mountainside.
1
A porter is someone who helps carry your bags or equipment. 3
Gut instinct is a feeling you have that you can’t explain logically.

SU R V I VA L I N S T I N C T 223
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 how the sensation of fear in his stomach acted body struggles to deal with the oxygen-thin air.
as a warning, compelling him to pay attention. Cognition is affected, and even simple tasks
Gerlinde strove to block out fear with a quiet seem to take forever. The team checked their
calm. If she kept herself completely focused on the gear and melted snow for water. Below them, a
task at hand,4 she didn’t feel scared. terrifying void6 plunged nearly two miles to the
glacier below. Two thousand feet above was the
But now Ralf begged his wife to come down
glistening white summit.
with him. “Ralf was yelling that the route is
very, very avalanche prone. He was shouting “There was a moment when we all started to
desperately,” recalled Maxut Zhumayev, one get nervous, in a good way,” Gerlinde said later.
F of the Kazakh climbers. “Gerlinde shouted in L “We touched each other’s hands and looked at
return that now is the moment when the fate of each other in the eyes and said, ‘OK, tomorrow
the climb will be decided.” She was concerned is our day.’”
that if they turned around now, they would miss On August 22, they were greeted by a
the period of good weather. cloudless day, the weather like a gift. The gales
“I was really afraid I would never see her were gone, and the sky ran blue and cloudless.
G
again,” Ralf explained later. But with only a third of the oxygen at sea level,
M
snow up to their chests in places, and stinging
Gerlinde watched as Ralf descended into the
blasts of icy wind, the climbers made painfully
mist. Then she focused on the task ahead. “It’s
H slow progress. By 1 p.m., they had gained less
not that I was indifferent to the risk,” she said
than 180 meters.
afterward. “But my gut feeling was good.”
From Advanced Base Camp, Ralf guided
As Ralf had feared, the snow was becoming
them by phone and watched as their figures, no
loose. Later that day, a small avalanche hit
bigger than commas on a piece of paper, edged
Tommy Heinrich, the Argentinian, who was
toward the peak. After climbing for 12 hours,
climbing below the others; it knocked him N
I they were just 300 meters below the summit.
upside down and stuffed5 his nose and mouth.
On the radio, Ralf urged Gerlinde to return
Only the fixed rope kept him from being swept
to Camp IV for the night now that they had
off the mountain. He eventually dug himself out,
broken the trail and knew the way.
but decided that he, too, would turn back.
“You cannot sleep there, you cannot relax,”
So now they were four: Gerlinde, Maxut O
he said.
and Vassiliy (the two Kazakh climbers), and
the videographer, Dariusz. The team spent a P
“Ralf,” said Gerlinde, “we are here. We don’t
miserable night crammed into a two-person want to go back.”
J tent. Two days later, on August 20, they reached With the sun low in the west, the team
Camp III, exhausted and chilled to the bone. stopped to put up a tiny tent on the edge of a
They drank coffee with honey and warmed their crevasse.7 After an hour of hacking at the ice,
hands and feet over their gas stoves. All night they had a platform four feet wide. They secured
the frosted tent walls snapped in the wind. Q the tent with ice axes, and by 8:15 they were
The weather improved on Sunday, sitting inside, a stove hanging from the ceiling
August 21, helping to carry the team to with a pot of melting snow. The temperature was
K
Camp IV. They were now at nearly 8,000 minus 25 Celsius. They would rest until morning,
meters, in the so-called death zone. Here the then resume the push for the prize, now so close.

4
If something is at hand, it is in front of you or is the thing you are 6
A void is an empty space.
now dealing with. 7
A crevasse is a deep crack, especially in ice or a snow-covered
5
To stuff something is to fill or block it up. mountain.

224 U N I T 10
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 They set out around 7 a.m. as another She wanted to share the moment with Ralf,
clear morning dawned. By mid-afternoon, they but when she opened the radio, she couldn’t
reached the base of a ramp beneath the summit speak. There were mountains in every direction.
ridge. For the first 20 meters, the snow only V Mountains she had climbed. Mountains that
covered their shins. But soon the snow became had stolen the lives of friends and nearly claimed
R chest deep. “Oh no,” Gerlinde thought, “it’s hers, too. Alone, with the world at her feet, she
not possible that we’ve come so far up and will turned from one point of the compass to another.
have to turn back…” With a surge of energy Fifteen minutes later, Maxut and Vassiliy
and hope, she finally crawled out of the ramp arrived, shoulder to shoulder, followed by
and onto the ridge. It was 4:35 p.m. She could Dariusz. Everyone embraced. It was 7 p.m.
see the summit dome. Dariusz filmed Gerlinde as she tried to explain
“You can make it!” Ralf cried over the radio. what it meant to be there at that moment. She
S
“You can make it! But you are late! Take care!” W began to cry, then composed herself. “It was
She sipped from her water bottle. Her throat very, very hard, … and now it’s just amazing.”
was cracked; it hurt to swallow. It was too cold She gestured to the sea of peaks in all directions,
T
to sweat, and she was dehydrated just from as a golden light began to burnish8 the world.
panting for air. “You see all this—I think everybody can
understand why we do this.”
And then she walked the final steps to the
U
apex of K2, reaching the summit at 6:18 p.m.
8
When you burnish something, such as metal, you rub it or polish it
to make it shiny.

Members of the 2011 K2

expedition team take their
final steps toward the summit.

SU R V I VA L I N S T I N C T 225
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 UNDERSTANDING THE READING

SUMMARIZING A Complete the summary of the reading passage. Write no more than two words in
each space.

In the summer of 1 , a team of mountain climbers attempted to climb

2
. The team consisted of 3 climbers, including
one woman, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner. First, they set up a number of 4
along a ridge on the north side of the mountain. Then they began their ascent. The climb
soon became dangerous, and 5 climbers eventually decided to turn
back, including Gerlinde’s 6
, Ralf Dujmovits. After a few days, the
7
improved, allowing the climbers to reach an altitude known as the
8
. They pushed on and finally reached the summit on August 23.
Gerlinde became the 9 to climb all of the world’s highest peaks
without using extra 10
.

U N D E R S TA N D I N G B How did the climbers respond to fear during the climb? Check (!) four statements that
MAIN IDEAS best summarize the information in paragraphs D–H.
1. Gerlinde and Ralf reacted differently to their fears.
2. Most of the climbers were concerned and wanted to turn back.
3. Ralf felt fear and knew he should return to base camp.
4. Gerlinde blocked out her fear and focused on climbing.
5. Ralf was keen that the other team members continue.
6. Gerlinde was prepared to take risks that Ralf would not.

SEQUENCING C Put the events (a–h) of the climb in order on the timeline.
a. The team members get to Camp III.
b. The team members enter the “death zone.”
c. The team starts the climb to the summit.
d. The weather turns bad, and Ralf quits the climb.
e. The team begins setting up camps along the route.
f. The team members get within 300 meters of the summit.
g. Gerlinde and other team members reach the summit.
h. An avalanche hits Tommy Heinrich, and he decides to drop out.

July 5 Aug 18 Aug 23

Aug 16 Aug 20

226 U N I T 10
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