Dark Day for Mountaineering: Nine Dead on K2

↵Climbing a 28,000-foot mountain isn’t as physically ↵demanding as, you know, playing 18 holes. But it’s more ↵dangerous, to be sure. Today brings a sobering reminder of ↵how harrowing life on the mountain can be, as the Los ↵Angeles Times reports at least nine dead and ↵five missing on K2 in Pakistan.
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↵The Times reports two climbers fell before an ↵avalanche claimed at least six more in descent. K2 is the ↵second tallest mountain in the world, and considered more ↵challenging than Everest.
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↵As the X-Games rides on this weekend, this tragedy helps ↵appreciation of the controlled environment the popularized ↵extreme sports take place in. Wakeboarding and skating on an ↵enormous ramp are thrills, yeah. But there’s nothing ↵like the wild to put danger in context.↵