K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth. Rising to about 8,611 meters (28,251 feet), it stands below Mount Everest but is widely regarded as a more technically difficult and dangerous climb.
K2 lies in the Karakoram range, on the boundary between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and China's Xinjiang region. Its name comes from the 19th-century Survey of India, which labeled it the second peak measured in the Karakoram. It is also known as Mount Godwin-Austen and has earned the nickname “Savage Mountain.”
Italian climbers Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni made the first successful ascent on July 31, 1954. K2's steep faces, exposed ridges, unstable weather, and northern location make its climbing season shorter and its conditions harsher than Everest's. The mountain was the last of the world's fourteen 8,000-meter peaks to be climbed in winter, finally achieved by a Nepalese team in January 2021.
A common mix-up is confusing elevation with prominence: Everest is higher above sea level, while K2 is the highest peak in the Karakoram.