Gasherbrum II ( also known as K4) is the 13th highest mountain on Earth, resting on the boarder of Pakistan and China. Gasherbrum II is the third highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif and is classified as being in the Karakoram range of the Himalaya. The mountain measures an altitude of 8035 meters or 26,515 feet.

The standard climbing route for the peak is via the southwest ridge as it is relatively fee of objective hazards such as ice falls and avalanches. The route was first climbed 1956 by Austrian’s Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch, and Hans Willenpart. Some of the other historic ascents of the mountain are the second ascent in 1975 by a French Expedition as well as the first female ascent by the Polish woman, Wanda Rutkiewicz. In 1982 Reinhold Messner reached the top with two Pakistanis, Nazir Sabir and Sher Khan. Two years later Reinhold was back with Hans Kammerlander successfully traversing between the summits of Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I without returning to base camp or using oxygen, a feat Kammerlander stated as one of the most difficult ascents he had ever accomplished. The first ski descent happened also in 1984, French skier Patrice Bournat and Czech skier Wim Pasquier skied into history as one of the first true ski descents from the summit of an 8000 meter peak. 1985 saw another ski descent but this time by France’s Tierry Renard, then for some reason twenty years pass before the next ski descent of the peak. In 2005 Jorgen Aamot from Norway and Frederik Ericsson of Sweden make the forth and fifth ski descents.  In 2006 Gasherbrum II was back in the spotlight with German randonee racers Benedict Bohm and Sebastian Haag making the next leap by skiing the peak twice. The first time by a traditional summit from camp III, the second five days after the first. Bohm and Haag rested after their first successful descent and then decided to try for a faster time pushing an ascent and ski descent from Base camp- Base camp in 17 hours.