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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
A full moon illuminates the north face of K2.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
A rare view of the epic ridge on the Chinese side of K2—so remote and difficult that most climbers tackle the Karakoram Range peak from the Pakistani side. Here, members of the 2011 expedition ferry equipment to the base of the 28,251-foot summit.
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Photograph by Ralf Dujmovits
Buffeted by stinging blasts of wind-driven snow, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner checks the ropes the team has spent weeks fixing along the entire route—9,000 feet of rope in all.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
It took dozens of camels and eight Kyrgyz drivers to haul 2.2 tons of gear across the bed of the Shaksgam River to Chinese Base Camp. The cost: $17,000—plus eight pairs of sunglasses.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
The swift current nearly swallows a two-hump Bactrian camel crossing the frigid stream that drains multiple glaciers in the Sarpo Laggo Valley of the Karakoram Range. The channel was the last but most difficult water barrier before arriving at Chinese Base Camp.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Kaltenbrunner leads the expedition across this crevasse in the upper portion of the K2 North Glacier to get to Camp I.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Kaltenbrunner and Dariusz Załuski sort equipment at the expedition’s depot on the K2 North Glacier.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Maxut Zhumayev climbs the snow ridge between Camps I and II.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Kaltenbrunner (in red), Załuski (orange), and Zhumayev follow Vassiliy Pivtsov up a snow slope below Camp II.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Bundled in their down suits, Ralf Dujmovits and Kaltenbrunner study the route up toward Camp IV and the beginning of the “death zone.” That is the point, above 8,000 meters, at which mountaineers who opt to climb without bottled oxygen face the limits of the human body. “What makes a difference in not having oxygen is your ability to fend off cold,” Dujmovits says. “You freeze yourself from the inside out, because you can’t burn enough fat to stay warm.”
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Standing on the front points of her crampons, Kaltenbrunner climbs the steep rock-and-snow pitches up to Camp II. As part of extensive training before expeditions, she refines her balance by walking on a rope stretched between two apple trees.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Dujmovits, Pivtsov, Zhumayev, and Kaltenbrunner (left to right) look at pictures of the North Ridge of K2 in the dining tent at Advanced Base Camp.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Heavy summer snow made everything harder—from breaking trail and staying dry to digging out tents after storms.
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Photograph by Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner
Kaltenbrunner’s self-portrait, with Dujmovits behind her, shows the strain of grueling conditions. It was difficult to relax even on the flat terrain leading to Camp I, because the K2 North Glacier is mined with hidden crevasses.
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Photograph by Ralf Dujmovits
With crampons, ice axes, and ropes they previously fixed, the climbers traverse west on the edge of the North Ridge. The route proved much steeper than they had anticipated.
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Photograph by Maxut Zhumayev
On this day the weather is windy but improving. The fixed ropes buried under new snow, Kaltenbrunner presses on up to Camp III between fellow climbers Pivtsov and Załuski. “Many times I felt as if I were being carried along,” she says. “It was mystical—I was getting power from somewhere. It has happened to me a few times before, but the feeling was never so strong as on K2.”
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Photograph by Dariusz ZaÅuski
Above Camp IV Pivtsov (leading), Zhumayev, and Kaltenbrunner approach the Japanese Couloir.
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Photograph by Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner
After Kaltenbrunner reached the summit first, Zhumayev and Pivtsov, bent with exhaustion, trudge the final steps shoulder to shoulder.
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Photograph by Dariusz ZaÅuski
The climbers celebrate as Załuski captures the moment.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
A tiny pinprick of light emanates from the tent of the successful summit team (on the peak at center left), signaling their return to the bivouac site at 8,300 meters after 15 hours of climbing. Photographer Tommy Heinrich’s 14-minute exposure was made from Advanced Base Camp, more than two miles away.
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Photograph by Tommy Heinrich
Reunited after separating on the mountain, Kaltenbrunner and Dujmovits embrace at the depot above Advanced Base Camp. “The joy and relief that I felt when Ralf took me into his arms are almost impossible to describe,” Kaltenbrunner wrote on her website, which got 17 million hits on the day of the summit push. “My life’s dream has come true.”
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