Recalling epic K2 first ascent

Over the years it has been called the mountain of mountains, the savage mountain and in more contemporary parlance, a death trap.

So perilous is K2, that Hollywood movies have been made that dramatically chronicle its perils.

Fifty years ago on 31 July, two Italian climbers, Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni, braved wind, rain and storm to climb the second highest – and arguably – most dangerous mountain in the world.

Their ascent was every bit as heroic as the conquest of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing…