Death, Danger, Dazzle and Daring on the Way to K-2

They dared death and in the end death got them or did it? At last count, eleven of the World's best mountaineers fell or froze to their death as they sought to climb the world's most dangerous peak -- K2. But it was about men such as these that they say: "One day's life of a Lion is better than a thousand years life of a jackal."

Norwegian, Italian, Pakistani -- they must have begun their planning more than a year ago. A couple of months ago, all permits squared away, they would have shipped their gear and boarded a Boeing 737 from Islamabad to the mountain resort of Skardu.

They would have wanted you to see the air safari winding through the valley carved by the Indus through the two great mountain ranges of the World -- the Karakorum and the Himalayas. As the aircraft meandered through snow clothed peaks that rose above both the plane and the clouds, they would have excitedly pointed out Nanga Parbat -- the ninth highest peak in the world.

Toward the f** end of that 45 minute flight their blood would have raced as they saw or sensed Gasherbaum, Broadpeak and ... K-2 .... all higher than even Nanga Parbat. They must have oddly been at peace as well; after all this is what they were born for!

They would have wanted to tell you about Skardu and its beautiful Shangrila resort and to the South the Deosai Plains -- the highest plateau in the World at 14,000 feet comprising 2500 square kilometers of rolling green plains speckled with what seems like a million varieties of wild flowers.

The jeep ride to Askoli amidst white deserts and towering black peaks; the haggling with porters; the week long trek through Baltoro Glacier and through to Conchordia -- "the throne room of the Mountain Gods"; K-2.

They suffered through adversity that most of us cannot imagine, for reasons most of us cannot grasp, with an undaunting determination that we can only aspire for.