(…) “You can be the best mountaineer in the world but with K2 there’s a lot of luck involved. You have to be mentally prepared not to come back” legendary French mountaineer Pierre Beghin, who scaled the peak in 1991, told AFP before his death on another mountain a year later.

 

Climbing K2, he said at the time, was like “doing the Grandes Jorasses” – a technical icy, rocky peak in the Mont Blanc massif of France – “but ten times over with only half a lung.”

 

First French to climb a 8000m peak in solo and leading expert on modelling avalanches, Pierre Beghin passed away the following year in the Annapurna.