50 free K2 trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This K2 trivia quiz covers the second-highest mountain on Earth and the deadliest of the great peaks. The easy questions are the ones any mountain fan can manage: how high it is, which range it belongs to, which countries share it and why it is called the Savage Mountain. From there the set explains the odd name: the British surveyor who labelled it K2 from 130 kilometres away, the local names that never stuck, the Godwin-Austen alternative the Royal Geographical Society rejected, and the mathematician who named K3 surfaces after its beauty. The harder end is for mountaineers: Aleister Crowley's 1902 attempt, the Duke of the Abruzzi and the spur that bears his name, the 1953 Belay and the Gilkey Memorial, Lacedelli and Compagnoni's 1954 summit and the Bonatti-Mehdi oxygen controversy, the 1986 and 2008 disasters, the Bottleneck seracs, Wanda Rutkiewicz's first female ascent, the Magic Line and Polish Line, the never-climbed East Face, the 1986 measurement that briefly made it taller than Everest, and the ten Nepali climbers who finally stood on top in winter at minus 40. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for K2, its expeditions and its climbers before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Mount Everest, Himalayas and Mountaineering quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How high is K2?
8,611 m
That makes it the second-highest mountain on Earth after Everest.
Q 02In which mountain range does K2 stand?
The Karakoram
The range is generally considered separate from the Himalayas.
Q 03K2 sits on the border between which two countries?
Pakistan and China
It lies partly in Gilgit-Baltistan and partly in China's Xinjiang region.
Q 04Which climber's remark that 'it's a savage mountain that tries to kill you' gave K2 its famous nickname?
George Bell
He was a member of the 1953 American expedition.
Q 05Before 2021, roughly how many people died on K2 for every four who reached the top?
One
By August 2023 an estimated 800 people had summited, with 96 deaths.
Q 06Surveyor Thomas Montgomerie labelled two peaks K1 and K2. What became of K1?
It was found to be Masherbrum
The K stood for the range being surveyed.
Q 07From which mountain did Thomas Montgomerie make his first survey of the Karakoram in 1856?
Mount Haramukh
K2 apparently had no local name at all.
Q 08Why did the surveyor's label K2 stick, unlike K1, which became Masherbrum?
The mountain appeared to have no local name
It is barely visible from any settlement, so few locals would have needed to name it.
Q 09What alternative name for K2, honouring an early explorer, was rejected by the RGS but appears on some maps?
Mount Godwin-Austen
Chinese authorities officially call the peak Qogir.
Q 10The suggested local name Chogori derives from Balti words meaning what?
Big peak
It underlies the Chinese official name Qogir, though evidence of local use is scant.
Q 11Which mathematician named K3 surfaces partly after the beauty of K2?
André Weil
Fosco Maraini praised the name K2 as just the bare bones of a name, all rock and ice and storm and abyss.
Q 12A 1986 expedition led by George Wallerstein made what erroneous claim about K2?
That it was taller than Everest
A corrected measurement came in 1987, but the claim had already spread through reference works.
Q 13What height did the 2014 'K2 60 Years Later' expedition measure using satellite navigation?
8,609.02 m
Maps and encyclopaedias still give the traditional slightly higher figure.
Q 21Which two Italians made the first ascent of K2 on 31 July 1954?
Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni
The expedition was led by geologist Ardito Desio.
Q 22Which two men carried oxygen to 8,100 metres for the 1954 summit pair and bivouacked in the open above 8,000 m?
Walter Bonatti and Amir Mehdi
Mehdi spent months in hospital and lost his toes to frostbite.
Q 23What became of Bonatti's long-disputed version of the 1954 climb?
A second official history in 2007 largely confirmed it
Q 14Which side of K2 has never been climbed, largely because of unstable ice and snow?
The east
The North Face has not been climbed either.
Q 15Which notorious occultist was part of the first serious attempt on K2 in 1902?
Aleister Crowley
The team spent 68 days on the mountain, of which only eight had clear weather.
Q 16The standard route up K2 is named after which nobleman who first attempted it in 1909?
The Duke of the Abruzzi
After trying the spur, the Duke declared that K2 would never be climbed.
Q 17Roughly what share of K2 climbers use the Abruzzi Spur?
75%
It follows the south-east ridge above the glacier at the mountain's foot.
Q 18What is the name of the narrow couloir below K2's summit that runs beneath a wall of seracs?
The Bottleneck
House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid are the technical rock sections lower on the Abruzzi Spur.
Q 19Which American led the 1938 reconnaissance and the 1953 expedition on which Art Gilkey died?
Charles Houston
The 1953 team was pinned down by a storm for ten days at 7,800 metres.
Q 20Who saved almost the entire 1953 American team during a mass fall, an act known simply as The Belay?
Pete Schoening
The Gilkey Memorial at the mountain's foot honours the climber who did not survive.
The original 1954 official account had been discredited after prolonged controversy.
Q 24Which member of the 1954 Italian team died of pneumonia at Camp II in June, before the summit push?
Mario Puchoz
A rock sequence near the climbers' memorial is named the Gilkey-Puchoz sequence.
Q 25How many years passed between the first ascent of K2 and the second, by a Japanese expedition?
23
The 1977 team used more than 1,500 porters; Ashraf Aman became the first Pakistani on top.
Q 26Who was the first woman to summit K2, on 23 June 1986?
Wanda Rutkiewicz
The Polish climber had also been the first European woman up Everest.
Q 27The first woman up K2 summited Everest in 1978 on the day which fellow Pole was elected Pope?
John Paul II
She met Karol Wojtyla the following year.
Q 28How many climbers died on K2 during the 1986 season?
13
Five died in a single storm between 6 and 10 August, including expedition leader Alan Rouse.
Q 29How many climbers died in the 2008 K2 disaster of 1 August?
11
An ice avalanche high on the route swept away the fixed ropes.
Q 30Which Irish climber, the first from his country to summit K2, died in the 2008 disaster?
Ger McDonnell
Pakistani climber Meherban Karim was among the other victims.