Photographer Page

Tommy Heinrich

While donkeys, like these in China's Taklamakan Desert, are not generally known for their speed and agility, they were used in an ancient form of polo known as ljvu.

The location, elevation, and harsh climate make K-2—the second-highest mountain in the world—one of the most challenging to climb.

Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth tallest mountain, is known as the "Killer Mountain." In 2018, two climbers made the second winter ascent of the peak. One died on the descent while the other was rescued by climbers Adam Bielecki and Denis Urbuko, who abandoned their attempt at the first winter ascent on K2 to help.

After an astonishing 29 attempts, Nanga Parbat was finally climbed in winter when two teams joined forces: Alex Txikon from Basque Country and Ali Sadpara from Pakistan teamed up with Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger from Italy. All but Lunger reached the summit on February 26. The following year, French alpinist Elisabeth Revol, together with Polish climber Tomasz Mackiewicz, made the second winter ascent, and the first female winter ascent of Nanga Parbat. Mackiewicz died on descent and Revol was rescued by Polish climbers who were on K2 at the time.

A team of Polish mountaineers share a moment of levity around a Christmas Eve bonfire at their base camp at Pakistan's Nanga Parbat in 2006. Thirty-one climbers died on the 26,660-foot peak, known to locals as the “Naked Mountain,” before Austrian Hermann Bulh’s expedition summited in 1953. The Polish climbers hoped to be the first to summit in winter, but by mid-January, they had only managed to reach 22,900 feet and had to end the expedition due to bad weather. Finally, in 2016 a team of Italians successfully reached the peak in winter.

A full moon illuminates K2.