K2

K2, also Mount Godwin Austen, mountain peak in the Karakoram Range of the western Himalayas, straddling the border between China and Jammu and Kashmīr, a territory claimed by India and Pakistan. Pakistan currently controls the portion where K2 lies. K2, rising 8,611 m (28,251 ft), is the second tallest mountain in the world. Only Mount Everest (8,850 m/29,035 ft), also in the Himalayas, is taller. K2 is an almost regular cone of ice and limestone resting on a granite base. In 1856 T. G. Montgomerie of the Survey of India measured the mountain and named it “K2” to denote it as one of 35 summits in the Karakoram Range. In 1861 the peak was unofficially renamed Mount Godwin Austen, after British soldier and topographer Henry Haversham Godwin Austen, the second European to visit the area. Several local names, including Chogori,Lambha Pahar,Dapsang, and Kechu (K2), are also used to identify the peak. Eight expeditions to K2 were made between 1892 and 1954. On July 31, 1954, Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli, two members of an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, made the first successful ascent to the mountain's summit.

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