Summary:At 28,251 feet, K2 is the deadliest mountain on Earth—and on August 1, 2008, disaster struck. A group of 25 climbers from around the world set out to summit the peak, but delays, collapsing ice, and the onset of darkness turned triumph into catastrophe. A massive serac collapse wiped out the fixed ropes, leaving stranded climbers to descend in total darkness, without safety lines, battling exhaustion and the lack of oxygen. As hypoxia set in, hallucinations, confusion, and frostbite took their toll. But against all odds, selfless acts of bravery emerged. Sherpa climbers, a lost mountaineer wandering the DeathZone, and the Pakistani military’s record-breaking helicopter rescue became part of one of the most haunting yet heroic survival stories in mountaineering history.