Given a possible weather delay, the climbers currently heading for the summit of K2 could reach it during the third week of August. That would become the mountain’s first August summits since 2011, according to Eberhard Jurgalski’s 8000ers.com. But it’s far from the latest K2 summits ever.
Climbers have succeeded in August, September, even October. However, some of the worst tragedies ever on K2 took place in August.
Late summit pushes have often featured highly difficult climbs — either non-normal routes or with determined climbers who, like this year, refuse to concede. Historically, this month has had more than its share of epic climbs — some triumphant, some tragic.
Successes
An American team led by Jim Whittaker summited K2 on September 6-7, 1978. It was the third overall climb of K2 and a new route. They climbed the Northeast Ridge from China and then traversed the East Face to meet the Abruzzi Spur (usually climbed from the southeast, in Pakistan). Louis Reichardt, Jim Wickwire, John Roskelley, and Rick Ridgeway accompanied Whittaker on the summit.

Ridgeway and Roskelley at Camp 3 on K2. Photo: Jim Whittaker
Jonathan Pratt (UK) and Dan Mazur (U.S.) also succeeded at the tail end of summer. The climbers went up the West Ridge and the Southwest Side, summiting on Sept. 2, 1993.
Jordi Corominas of Spain made the first repetition of the Magic Line, climbing solo from Camp 1 to the top on Aug. 18, 2004. He returned to Base Camp via the deserted Abruzzi Spur route, after the climbers of that year had gone home. Corominas was awarded a lifetime Piolet d’Or last year.
The Russian team led by Viktor Kozlov that achieved the first and only ascent of the West Face of K2 needed to spend most of August working on the wall. They summited on Aug. 21-22, 2007.

K2’s west side. Photo: Graham Zimmerman
From the Chinese side
The latest summit ever achieved on K2 was a remarkable climb by a remarkable climber. Who other than Denis Urubko? Urubko joined regular climbing partner Sergey Samoilov of Kazakhstan, topping out on the North Ridge on the Chinese side of the mountain on Oct. 2, 2007, 10 days after the Russians succeeded on the West Face.
This was the only time that K2 was summited in autumn, and conditions were close to winterly. The pair tackled constant storms, fierce winds, and high avalanche risk. Their original plan was to open a new route, but the avalanche hazard finally forced them to climb the 1982 Japanese route, where they had been acclimatizing.

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner at Camp 2 on the North Face of K2, which she summited in 2011. Photo: Ralf Dujmovits
The last time a team summited in August was also memorable. On Aug. 23, 2011, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner of Austria became the first woman to complete the 14 8,000’ers without supplemental oxygen, after an epic climb of the North Ridge. Vassiliy Pivtsov and Maxut Zhumayev of Kazakhstan, and Darius Zaluski of Poland accompanied her.
Two patterns emerge on late K2 summits: August expeditions often climb from China. On the southern (Pakistani) side of the mountain, many late summiters were either Japanese or Korean. They included the second ascent of K2 by a huge team led by Ichiro Yoshizawa. Seven of their members, including the first Pakistani summiter, Ashraf Aman, reached the top on Aug. 8-9, 1977.
Tragedies
Coincidence or not, some of the worst tragedies on K2 happened in August.
In 1982, a Japanese team made history by opening the North Ridge route from China. Naoe Sakashita, Hiroshi Yoshino, and Yukihiro Yanagisawa summited on August 14. Yanagisawa fell to his death while descending. Four other members of the team reached the summit the next day.

Julie Tullis in martial arts outfit at K2 Base Camp, where she died on her way down from the summit. Photo: Kurt Diemberger
The ill-fated year of 1986 featured many summits on different routes, but also 13 deaths. The most dramatic episode came in August. From August 6-10, a storm trapped a group of climbers in higher camps as they descended from the summit. Days went by. Exhausted and without supplementary oxygen, five of them perished, as survivor Kurt Dienberger described in his bestselling novel, The Infinite Knot.
On Aug. 13, 1995, six climbers belonging to different expeditions died on their way down from the summit. Among them were Alison Heargraves of the UK, Rob Slater of the U.S., Jose Garces, Javier Escartin, and Javier Olivar of Spain, and Bruce Grant of New Zealand.

The 1995 Spanish expedition to K2. Three of the above climbers never made it down. Photo: El Periodico de Aragon
Why not later
Summits on the Pakistani 8,000’ers after July are rare since increasing temperatures result in unstable slopes, harder progress, open crevasses, and slushy, slippery snow on the glaciers. Monsoon rains usually hit in August as well. With such patterns in mind, agencies and climbers plan their expeditions for June-July — especially on Nanga Parbat and some lesser peaks. August is still suitable for trekkers or climbers looking for rock faces, but typically not for high-altitude climbers.

Tents in Camp 1 on K2 last week. Photo: Serge Hardy
Extreme weather in 2025
This atypical season has kept climbers mostly waiting in Base Camp for about six weeks.
“After two weeks of impeccable weather, when everyone was complaining that the season was too dry and too hot, the weather turned bad,” Laura Mares of Romania wrote about her recent expedition to Broad Peak, next door to K2. Climbers were not bothered by the heat itself but by the lack of snow and constant rockfall up to 6,000m.
Rockfall has cost two lives this season, on K2 and Laila Peak. Many have also been injured.

Laura Mares at Broad Peak’s Camp 2, with K2 visible through her tent door. Photo: Justin Ionescu
When the weather changed, it was not for the better.
“Heavy snowfall began at the top and rain below 6,000m,” Mares explained. “It did not stop until we had to go home.”
The situation was no different on K2, but climbers there were willing to wait longer than they were on Broad Peak. The first hints of a possible weather window started only last week. Mingma G of Imagine Nepal announced he would try on his clients’ behalf to summit around August 10. The remaining teams on K2 followed suit.
According to the latest update, they are now between Camp 2 and Camp 3. Summit plans vary from August 10 to August 12. The challenge will be the unknown conditions on the upper sections of K2, which still lack fixed ropes. Finally, there’s the descent, with more rocks whizzing down from Camp 2 to Base Camp.