Gasherbrum II

Gasherbrum II (Urdu: گاشر برم -2‎; simplified Chinese: 加舒尔布鲁木II峰; traditional Chinese: 加舒爾布魯木II峰; pinyin: Jiāshūěrbùlǔmù II Fēng), also known as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at 8,035 metres (26,362 ft) above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan province, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, China. The mountain was first climbed on July 7, 1956, by an Austrian expedition which included Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch, and Hans Willenpart.

Geography

Gasherbrum II is located on the border of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, and Xinjiang, China. It is part of the Karakoram mountain range in the Himalayas, and located at the top of the Baltoro Glacier. With an elevation of 8,035 metres (26,362 ft) it is the third-highest member of the Gasherbrum group, behind Gasherbrum I (8,080 metres or 26,510 feet) and Broad Peak (8,051 metres or 26,414 feet).Gasherbrum III is sometimes considered to be a subpeak of Gasherbrum II, because the former has a topographic prominence of only 461 metres (1,512 ft).

Gasherbrum

Gasherbrum is a remote group of peaks located at the northeastern end of the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram range of the Himalaya on the border of the Chinese-administered Shaksgam Valley and the Gilgit-Baltistan territory of Pakistan. The massif contains three of the world's 8,000 metre peaks (if one includes Broad Peak). Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible face of Gasherbrum IV; but in fact it comes from "rgasha" (beautiful) + "brum" (mountain) in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain".

In 1856, Thomas George Montgomerie, a British Royal Engineers lieutenant and a member of the Great Trigonometric Survey of India, sighted a group of high peaks in the Karakoram from more than 200 km away. He named five of these peaks K1, K2, K3, K4 and K5 where the K denotes Karakoram. Today, K1 is known as Masherbrum, K3 as Broad Peak, K4 as Gasherbrum II and K5 as Gasherbrum I. Only K2, the second highest mountain in the world, has kept Montgomerie's name.

Gasherbrum IV

Gasherbrum IV (Urdu: گاشر برم -4‎; simplified Chinese: 加舒尔布鲁木IV峰; traditional Chinese: 加舒爾布魯木IV峰; pinyin: Jiāshūěrbùlǔmù IV Fēng) is the 17th highest mountain on Earth and the 6th highest in Pakistan. It is one of the peaks in the Gasherbrum massif.

The Gasherbrums are a remote group of peaks located at the northeastern end of the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram range of the Himalaya. The massif contains three of the world's 8,000 metre peaks (if one includes Broad Peak). Gasherbrum is often claimed to mean "Shining Wall", presumably a reference to the highly visible west face of Gasherbrum IV; but in fact, it comes from "rgasha" (beautiful) and "brum" (mountain) in Balti, hence it actually means "beautiful mountain."

Notable ascents and attempts