'Extreme Skier Dies on K2'

It was reported today that skier and mountaineer Fredrik Ericcson died Friday, while trying to summit K2 in Pakistan -- the second-highest mountain in the world. Ericcson was attempting to be the first man to ski from summit to base camp on K2. According to his friends, Ericcson and his climbing partners had begun the 'summit push' between 1:00am and 1:30am in low-visibility weather. Somewhere along the summit route at about 8,300 meters (27,231 feet) Ericcson "lost his purchase and was unable to arrest his fall." (This would be a fall of almost 4,300 feet).

His body, resting at about 7,000 meters will remain where it lies and likely no attempt will be made to recover it, due to the extreme danger. K2 is considered much more difficult than Everest to ascend, and in terms of number of ascent attempts vs. number of climber deaths, is the most dangerous of all of the "eight-thousanders" (peaks over 8,000 meters) in the world.