Chogori Peak - Distant Mystic Land

Chogori Peak is ranked as one of "Top Ten Most Beautiful Mountains in China" by China National Geography Magazine. 
Chogori Peak (8,611 meters) is in Yecheng County, Kashgar Region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Chogori means "high, great and magnificent" in Tajik language.
It stands on the Chinese -Pakistan border, but the first time China surveyed this absolutely masculine peak at a close distance was nearly 140 years later than the Englishman Henry Godwin-Austen in 1856.
Internationally, it is better known as K2, which is the only major mountain in the world that has surveyor's notation as its common name (K stands for Karakoram, 2 means it was the second peak listed). Like Qomolangma which was once incomparably remote from us, Chogori still looks very remote from us.
Chogori lies in the middle of the Karakorum Range. Its southern slopes are in Pakistan, and its northern face is part of Yecheng County in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
There are six ridges on Mount Chogori: The northwestern-southeastern ridge is the principal ridge line of the Karakorum range, also the dividing line between China and Pakistan. The other five ridges are the northern ridge, the western ridge, the northwestern ridge and the southeastern ridge. It is more difficult to climb the Karakorum Range from the northern slope than from the southern slope. It is even more difficult to climb Chogori.
First of all, the dangerous slope with an average gradient of 45¡ã, as if shaped by knives and axes, are covered with steep cliffs and sliding chutes arising from avalanches. From the base camp on the northern slope to the summit, the vertical height difference is 4,700 meters. It is the biggest vertical height difference among the peaks 8,000 meters above sea level in the world. The steep slope makes it extremely difficult to find safe places for setting up high-altitude camps. If too many climbers climb the same route, it is very likely that the later climbers have to climb non-stop for lack of intermediate camps, thus greatly increasing the risks.
Even grimmer than the steep slope is the nasty weather on the Karakorum Range.
Between May and September, none of the lucky mountaineers have ever had one whole week of fine weather for decades, although this is the best season for mountain climbing.
"The peak form which the fewest return" has left the following bloody statistics: Since 1954, only 164 people have scaled the summit, and 49 others have been killed; of all the 8,000-meter-plus peaks, it has the third highest death rate.
Since the 1990s, commercial mountaineering has developed rapidly on a global scale. It is no exaggeration to say that, provided you have the time and the money, even if you are blind or one-legged, there will be commercial exploration organization willing to try and take you to the summit of Qomolangma, the highest peak in the world.
But, the Karakorums are not he Himalayas, and Chogori is not Qomolangma. This great peak is for expert climbers only. In the eyes of the top-class mountaineers, it is the most beautiful peak; it is its matchless danger that seduces them.