After months climbing high in the mountains of Pakistan, Bishop resident Don Bowie and his teammates reached the summit of K2 on Friday.

They call their team Shared Summits, and three of the six team members made it to the summit last week.

At 28,251 feet, (close to twice the height of our local highpoints) K2 is the second highest mountain in the world. At 29,028 Everest is taller but K2 is considered far more difficult to climb.

Over the years about twice as many people have died on K2 than have reached the summit, leading to the nickname the savage mountain. Last year, while hundreds of people reached the summit of the more famous and taller Mount Everest, only four people made it to the Top of K2, according to the Shared Summits website.

After the Shared Summits team’s attempts at a new route on the East Face of K2 were called off due to excessive avalanche conditions, the climbers changed their plans to focus on the standard Abruzzi ridge route, still considered far harder than the standard route on Everest.

Well check in with Don when he gets back to Bishop. In the meantime, more information and video of the K2 climb can be found at the Shared Summits website at shared summits.com.