K2 Trivia
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48 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 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How high is K2?
8,611 m
K2 is 8,611 m (28,251 ft) high, making it the second-highest mountain on Earth after Everest.
Q 02In which mountain range does K2 stand?
The Karakoram
The Karakoram, a range generally treated as separate from the Himalayas, has K2 as its highest peak; the Himalayas proper lie to the south-east.
Q 03K2 sits on the border between which two countries?
Pakistan and China
Pakistan and China share the summit: K2 stands on the border between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and China's Xinjiang region, and the Chinese side is far less visited.
Q 04Which climber's remark that 'it's a savage mountain that tries to kill you' gave K2 its famous nickname?
George Bell
George Bell, a member of the 1953 American expedition, told reporters on his return that it was a savage mountain that tries to kill you, and 'the Savage Mountain' stuck.
Q 05Before 2021, roughly how many people died on K2 for every four who reached the top?
One
One death for roughly every four summits: by 2020 fewer than 400 climbers had reached K2's top while about 90 had died on it, the deadliest ratio of any eight-thousander except Annapurna.
Q 06From which mountain did Thomas Montgomerie first sketch and label K2 in 1856?
Mount Haramukh
Mount Haramukh, a 5,142 m peak in Kashmir, was the survey station from which Montgomerie sighted two distant peaks in 1856 and labelled them K1 and K2 in his notebook.
Q 07Why did the survey label K2 stick as the mountain's name?
The mountain appeared to have no local name
The mountain appeared to have no local name: it is barely visible from any inhabited place, so the survey label was kept, whereas K1 took the name locals already used.
Q 08What alternative name for K2, honouring an early explorer, was rejected by the RGS but appears on some maps?
Mount Godwin-Austen
Mount Godwin-Austen honours Henry Godwin-Austen, who surveyed the peak's approaches in 1861; the Royal Geographical Society rejected the name, though it appears on several maps.
Q 09The suggested local name Chogori derives from Balti words meaning what?
Big peak
Big peak: Chogori combines the Balti words chhogo, meaning big, and ri, meaning mountain; it underlies the Chinese official name Qogir, though evidence that locals ever used it is scant.
Q 10Which mathematician named K3 surfaces partly after the beauty of K2?
André Weil
André Weil coined the term K3 surface in a 1958 report, writing that it honoured Kummer, Kähler and Kodaira and the beautiful mountain K2 in Kashmir.
Q 11A 1986 expedition led by George Wallerstein made what erroneous claim about K2?
That it was taller than Everest
That it was taller than Everest: Wallerstein's satellite-based reading suggested K2 topped Everest, and the claim reached reference works before an Italian survey under Ardito Desio corrected it in 1987.
Q 12What height did the 2014 'K2 60 Years Later' expedition measure using satellite navigation?
8,609.02 m
8,609.02 m was the GNSS reading taken on the summit in 2014 by the Pakistani-Italian 'K2 60 Years Later' team, about two metres under the traditional figure that reference works kept.
Q 13Which side of K2 has never been climbed, largely because of unstable ice and snow?
Q 21Which 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
Walter Bonatti and Amir Mehdi hauled the oxygen sets to about 8,100 m, found no tent waiting and survived a night in the open; Mehdi spent months in hospital and lost his toes to frostbite.
Q 22What became of the long-disputed dissenting account of K2's 1954 summit day?
A second official history in 2007 largely confirmed it
A second official history in 2007 largely confirmed it: the Italian Alpine Club's report accepted that the summit pair had moved the top camp and left the oxygen carriers to bivouac in the open.
Q 23Which member of the 1954 Italian team died of pneumonia at Camp II in June, before the summit push?
The east
The east side of K2 has never been climbed: the East Face's snow and ice formations are unstable and prone to collapse, whereas the West Face was eventually climbed direct by a Russian team.
Q 14Which notorious occultist was part of the first serious attempt on K2 in 1902?
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley joined Oscar Eckenstein's 1902 expedition, which spent 68 days on the mountain with only eight clear days and got no higher than about 6,500 m.
Q 15The standard route up K2 is named after which nobleman who first attempted it in 1909?
The Duke of the Abruzzi
The Duke of the Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo of Savoy, reached about 6,250 m on the south-east spur in 1909, then declared that K2 would never be climbed.
Q 16Roughly what share of K2 climbers use the standard south-east ridge route?
75%
75% or so of K2 climbers take that south-east ridge, first tried in 1909, which rises from the glacier at the mountain's foot.
Q 17What is the name of the narrow couloir below K2's summit that runs beneath a wall of seracs?
The Bottleneck
The Bottleneck is the couloir at about 8,200 m below an overhanging serac wall; collapsing ice there killed many of the climbers lost in the 2008 disaster.
Q 18Which American led the 1938 reconnaissance and the 1953 expedition on which Art Gilkey died?
Charles Houston
Charles Houston, a physician, led the 1938 reconnaissance that reached nearly 8,000 m and the 1953 attempt on which a ten-day storm near 7,800 m forced a retreat.
Q 19Who saved almost the entire 1953 American team during a mass fall, an act known simply as The Belay?
Pete Schoening
Pete Schoening held five falling climbers and the injured Art Gilkey on a single ice-axe belay on 10 August 1953; Gilkey was later swept away, and a memorial cairn honours him.
Q 20Which two Italians made the first ascent of K2 on 31 July 1954?
Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni
Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni reached the summit on 31 July 1954 using bottled oxygen, on the expedition led by geologist Ardito Desio.
Mario Puchoz
Mario Puchoz, a guide from Courmayeur, died of pneumonia at Camp II on 21 June 1954, and a memorial cairn near base camp honours him alongside Art Gilkey.
Q 24How 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 25Who was the first woman to summit K2, on 23 June 1986?
Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz reached the top on 23 June 1986, the first woman on K2; she had also been the first European woman up Everest, in 1978.
Q 26Which pope was elected on the day the first woman up K2 summited Everest, in 1978?
John Paul II
John Paul II was elected on 16 October 1978, the same day the climber reached Everest's summit; she met him in Poland the following year and gave him a stone from the mountain.
Q 27How many climbers died on K2 during the 1986 season?
13
13 climbers died on K2 during the 1986 season, across several expeditions; five perished in a single storm between 6 and 10 August, including British expedition leader Alan Rouse.
Q 28How many climbers died in the 2008 K2 disaster of 1 August?
11
11 climbers died on 1 and 2 August 2008 after a serac collapse above the summit couloir swept away the fixed ropes, leaving descending climbers stranded in the dark.
Q 29Which Irish climber, the first from his country to summit K2, died in the 2008 disaster?
Ger McDonnell
Ger McDonnell, from County Limerick, became the first Irish climber to summit K2 on 1 August 2008 and died on the descent, reportedly while trying to help stricken Korean climbers.
Q 30Which 2000 survival thriller directed by Martin Campbell is set on K2?
Vertical Limit
Vertical Limit, released in December 2000, stars Chris O'Donnell as a climber racing to rescue his sister from a crevasse high on K2.