SKARDU, July 26: Italy's agriculture minister flew to the base camp of the world's second highest mountain, K-2, on Monday to attend programmes being held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its conquest by Italian climbers.
K-2, which is 8,611 meters (28,416 feet) high and known locally as Chogori or "King of Mountains," was first conquered by Italian climbers Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni at sunset on July 31, 1954.
The Italians stole victory from the Americans, who had mounted three unsuccessful expeditions between 1939 and 1953. "We consider it the biggest event in our sporting history, because K-2 is one of the most difficult 8,000 meter peaks," Giovanni Alemanno, himself an avid climber, told AFP.
"It was just a few years after World War-II, there was competition with the Americans and the English, so after the war all Italians put their pride in this feat." The minister arrived on Sunday in Skardu, the alpine desert gateway town to K-2 on the sandy banks of the Indus river, as the Italian government's representative at golden jubilee celebrations here.
"For the people who love mountains, it is heaven here," the minister said after a scenic flight from Islamabad over the majestic Himalaya and Karakoram ranges. Pakistan is home to five of the world's 14 peaks over 8,000 meters.
A member of the right-wing National Alliance of Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government, Mr Alemanno had to cancel plans to take the seven-day trek to the base camp earlier this month because of political problems at home.
After Monday's helicopter trip to Concordia near the base camp, he will join some of the 600 Italians heading either for the summit or just the base camp. K-2 towers over the majestic Karakorams on the border of Pakistan and China.
Two Italian anniversary expeditions are simultaneously climbing from K-2's southern Pakistani side and its northern Chinese side, aiming to meet at the summit. Mr Alemanno said the conquest of K-2 symbolised the restoration of Italian pride after the disgrace of World War-II.
"After the dark period of the second world war they had to do something that all people, all Italians, were united in thinking about and feeling. So this was also part of Italy's post-war reconstruction."
No climber has managed to reach the K-2 summit for the past three years because of treacherous weather. A team of Swiss and Tibetan-Chinese climbers and one of the Italian expeditions are currently queued up at camp IV, the last camp before the summit.
To mark K-2's golden jubilee, Mr Alemanno will inaugurate a memorial, 'Museum of the Italians', in Skardu on August 1, and preside over a polo match between the Italian team and local players from the Baltistan region.
The events are being held a day after the actual anniversary because of religious ceremonies on July 31 by the local people. Mr Alemanno has climbed Europe's highest peak Mont Blanc (4,800 meters) and in 1999 went as high as 5,300 meters to the base camp of Shisa Pangma, an 8,000 meter mountain in Chinese-ruled Tibet.
PAKISTANI CLIMBER: As a shepherd boy, Ashraf Aman's imagination was fired by his uncles' tales of grand European expeditions they joined as porters to conquer Pakistan's mighty mountains in the early 1950s.
When Ashraf Aman became the first Pakistani to summit K-2, the "King of Mountains", more than two decades later, their spirits were with him, he says, egging him on its icy ridges.
"The local people always said devils and fairies lived on K-2, but when I was climbing I only saw the spirits of my mother, my grandfather and my uncles," Ashraf Aman, 61, told AFP in Skardu, the K-2 gateway town that becomes his home each northern summer for the mountaineering season. At 8,611 meters (28,251 feet), K-2 is the world's second highest mountain.
