[into thin air]
One season. Two 8000m peaks. No bottled oxygen.
K2.
[8611m]
The world’s second highest mountain, known as the savage mountain due to its high risk and death rate - rock fall, avalanches, and a massive serac in the death zone await. It is also known as the mountaineer’s mountain - attracting climbers with its beautiful shape and its challenging and varied climb to the top.
Anja has become the first German woman to climb K2. Worldwide, only 10 other women in history have climbed K2 without supplementary oxygen before her.
Broad Peak. [8047m]
The world’s twelfth-highest mountain, named after Breithorn in the Swiss Alps because of its broad summit line, stretching across 1.5 km.
As it is one of the safer 8000m peaks in the Karakoram, Anja climbed Broad Peak to acclimatize for K2. With that in mind, she and her team pushed for an early weather window, and she has made the first summit of a woman in the Karakoram that season.
K2 Against the Odds.
On the trek to base camp, Anja met a climber who survived the tragedy on K2 in 2008 which saw eleven climbers die. Whilst still an avid climber, not for a million dollar, he said, would he ever again set foot onto that mountain. Even today, summiting and surviving K2 remains a risky undertaking:
<25% summit success rate 2019 // 19% deaths per summits 1954-2019 // 24 consecutive years without any German summiting 1995-2018 // 12 years without anyone summiting at all 1986-2018
Interview
Article (German)
Article (German)
Interview (German)
Article (German)
