Bad weather on K2 forced climbers to abandon summit attempts this weekend after a rare window of clear skies closed suddenly, raising the possibility that the world’s second-highest peak will remain unclimbed for the third-straight year. A group of climbers, including and Christian Stangl, had pushed to Camp Three at 23,294 feet on Friday before high winds waylaid their progress and forced them to descend. Stangl, who caused controversy last year after , has left the mountain with a handful of other climbers. Zangrilli reported that only one other team remains in basecamp; he plans to wait ten days and hope for better weather. On the mountain’s north side, another team is still in basecamp and Kazakh climber Maxut Zhummayev is at 25,590 feet under heavy snow and wind. K2, the world’s second highest mountain at 28,250 feet, is considered one of the most difficult mountains to climb. The last successful summit bid was in 2008.
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