1 photo - as many as 10 are visible - continued to the summit, according to multiple acounts.

The Bottleneck is considered a last major obstacle on several routes to K2's highly coveted summit. Only a few hundred have reached the top in more than a century of exploration and attempts. An estimated 27 percent of those who stand on K2's summit get killed on the way down. 1 were the first in a fatal sequence of events that would leave a total of 11 climbers confirmed dead and frozen high on K2 in the next 24 to 36 hours. Witnessing that first fatality is part of why Rice is alive today to tell his story.ДЄs reported again today by the Los Angeles Times, Rice's delayed start, after he spilled melted snow on his socks, coupled with freezing hands that he couldn't warm up, convinced him that K2's summit could wait. The Bottleneck couloir on K2 stands at roughly 27,000 feet elevation - above 8,000 meters - in the so-called 'death zone.' Shortly after the Bottleneck photo was taken, Rice abandoned his summit bid and descended to base camp. High-altitude climbers describe the extreme heights in fatalistic terms in part because there is barely enough oxygen to sustain human life.

Conditions that can set in rapidly include pulmonary edema and cerebral edema. The few places on earth that reach above 8,000 meters are also exposed to jet-stream, hurricane-force winds, extreme cold, other radical and rapid weather changes, and they occupy dangerous terrain found only on the summits of the world's 14 highest mountains.Д¬limbers ascending ridge near Camp III on K2, dated July 4 2008.

Optixcam summit k2 frezzes