The 3 Worst climbing accidents of all time

Everyone knows how dangerous mountains can be, but that doesn’t stop thousands of people from trying to climb Mount Everest every year. The thought of getting to the top is the ultimate goal for many and most of the time, the more dangerous the mountain is, the more appealing. This has led to thousands of people dying over the years while trying to scale the peaks of the world, but few went worse than the stories below.

The 2008 K2 Disaster – 11 Dead

K2 is the second-highest mountain on earth and stands at an elevation of 8,610 m, which is only 238 meters smaller than Everest. It’s considered one of the most dangerous on earth to climb due to its highly unpredictable weather and frequent avalanches and rockfalls, but this didn’t stop several different groups in 2008 from trying to make the top. The night before the ascent, various climbers from different groups decided to work together and try to reach the summit as one, which included people from 7 countries and a local sherpa acting as a guide.

On 1 August 2008, the group began the climb and reached base camp 4 without any problems, but after this point, the climb got much harder. They were forced to climb up through a bottleneck and one of the climbers unhooked himself from the safety line to change his oxygen tank, but lost his balance and fell over 100 meters. Some of the other climbers went to help but he was already dead when they got to him. By this point, several of the group had already turned back because of the dangerous-looking conditions of the bottleneck, and several more were now going back down to return the body.

The next death happened when a climber suffering from altitude sickness lost his footing and ended up hanging from a rope attached to another climber. He was told to let go so he didn’t drag several people down with him, but upon doing so, made no attempt to use the self-arrest technique to stop himself, and instead just slid down the rope at full speed to his death.

The rest of the team managed to make the summit just before dark but found themselves in dangerous weather, and after a block of ice broke off and crushed another climber, everyone decided to head back down again. At this point, the group split into smaller teams and started the descent at different times. Out of all the accidents that happened that day, the biggest loss came when an ice avalanche cut all the guide ropes for an entire team and sent four people to their deaths. How the other deaths happened is still a mystery, because people split up and took separate paths, but two of the Sherpas who had come down before the accidents, claimed they say several objects fall down the mountain, and one climber was almost crushed by a falling body as he reached the base of a cliff.

The first ascent of Matterhorn – 4 Dead

Standing at a height of 4,478 m, Matterhorn Mountain wasn’t climbed until 14 July 1865 when a British team led an expedition to beat an Italian team who were also trying to be the first. The British team set out with a total of 9 people, which included 2 local guides and several important and wealthy individuals who all wanted to have their names remembered. The team set off early in the morning and quickly made progress to a height of 12,800 feet when they had their first break, but after this frequent breaks would be taken and one of the group needed to be constantly looked after due to suffering from altitude sickness.

They made the summit later in the day without any major problems and saw the Italian team a few hundred meters below on the other side, who, upon seeing their rivals already at the top, turned round and went back down again. The problems came for the British team on the descent when one of them slipped and fell, dragging the other 3 he was attached to with him. All 4 died from the fall and the guides along with another member of the climbing group were accused of cutting the lines, though this was later dismissed.

2022 Uttarakhand avalanche – 27 dead

Uttarakhand is a state in northern India with more than 40 mountains, one of which is called the Draupadi Ka Danda. On 4 October 2022, a group of 27 people from the Advanced Mountaineering Course of the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering were on the slopes that day conducting various exercises.

(The peak of Draupadi Ka Danda)

The area had received heavy rainfall over the last few weeks and this is thought to be one of the main reasons for the huge avalanche that happened that day. There was no indication in the weather and no one is sure to this day what caused it, but thousands of tons of snow and ice came barreling down the side of the mountain and buried the entire mountaineering group. Because of how close they all were to the main body of the avalanche, all were quickly buried and lost their lives in a single incident. It is officially the worst mountaineering accident in Indian history.