The degree of a person's enlightenment is equal to the depth of his suffering.

Mountaineers take the initiative to endure suffering through mountaineering, and the more suffering they have, the more they will have a different understanding of material enjoyment, for quiet and ordinary life, for friendship and love, and for their own value between heaven and earth.

It is difficult to find a thorough understanding, but the understanding of oneself and life must be different.

K2 – This simple combination of letters and numbers may seem ordinary to the average person, but for any climber, it has an unusual meaning. His other name may be more familiar – Chogori Peak, 8,611 above sea level, the second highest mountain in the world, but it is widely recognized by mountaineering circles as the most difficult mountain in the world to conquer.

In today's extremely mature commercial mountaineering, about 500 people can be sent to Mount Everest every year, but since 1954, when the Italian mountaineering team first reached the summit of K2, only more than 300 people have reached the summit of the so-called savage peak, and the maximum number of people a year is less than 50, while the death rate of the summit is as high as a terrifying 27%.

Compared to the Everest Base Camp, which can be reached by car, just getting to the K2 Base Camp is quite a challenge. Whether from the domestic side or the Pakistani side, the average person can only reach K2 Base Camp using the most primitive means of transportation – feet.

It takes about 1 week to get there on foot, and 2 weeks to get there. Just standing at the feet of K2 consumes all the energy of most people.

According to the words of the mountaineering company, SC Johnson has 1 chef, 3 assistant chefs, nearly 20 porters, 6 horses, and a logistics team of 1 sheep.

Veteran guides, in particular, have been guiding climbers and hikers who come to challenge K2 for more than 20 years. It is said that he successfully reached the summit of K2 as a collaborator more than a decade ago, but like the unknown Sherpas, you won't find his name in any of the summit records.

As an old-fashioned guide, Mousa always begins and ends with a madam or sir, and speaks and acts with the prudence and gentlemanliness of an English butler.

I thought the first two days of hiking would be relatively easy, but I didn't expect it to be the most painful part of the whole trip. The daily hike of more than 8 hours takes place in a hot and dry valley in 30-degree heat, surrounded by a large river, but dried by the hot and dry air before the moisture can disperse.

The muddy water of the river completely cut off the idea of gulping water, and each sip of water needs to be carefully weighed for the remaining distance and the amount of water remaining in the water bag. The only chance to beat the heat is wading through waist-deep glaciers, but after a few seconds of biting cold, SC Johnson guarantees that the heat is so lovely and inviting.

High reaction, low fever, heat stroke, blisters, everyone in the team more or less experienced various discomforts, and even began to fear the follow-up journey. Fortunately, after surviving the first two days, everyone was now enjoying a long-lost rest in the camp, drinking black tea and listening to Mouses reminisce about the past, and the sun was smearing a distant mountain peak orange.

From the Payu camp, you can see the roads and mountain peaks in the distance turn from yellow to pitch black, and even the turbidity currents that rush all the way are swallowed up by the pitch black.

I know without a Musa answer that it is the gateway to K2 – the Bartolo glacier – the second largest glacier in the world with the largest vertical drop and the third largest glacier outside the North and South Poles.

"Brother, follow me, don't leave this path, it will be very, very, very dangerous!"

Manzu, the 18-year-old cook, stared into Johnson's eyes, word by word, using three very in a row, like an old chief emphasizing tribal taboos to his juniors. His childish face and disproportionate tone made Johnson want to laugh a little, but he knew he was right.

Glaciers are not as crystal clear as you might think, on the contrary, the temperature differences and geological changes over the years have covered the surface of the glacier with a large amount of rubble. This gravel beach, which seems to be no different from an ordinary river beach, is full of dangers, and you can never predict whether a thousand years of ice or an abyss awaits you under the shallow rubble. The only thing you can rely on here is the unclear trail that porters and climbers have trodden over the years, but it's only relatively safe.

Without a guide, the trails can take you in a completely different direction, and the flow of glaciers means that what was safe last year or even a few days ago may not be safe now. The roar of the glacier came from the depths of your feet, like the breath of a dragon, and if you don't want to be swallowed by it, then follow the person in front of you, and don't trust a stone except the one you saw him step on!

Beneath the huge gravel is the 10,000-year-old ice and the abyss, which is the most terrifying part of K2, the never-ending gravel road, one foot high and one foot low, in addition to the soles of your shoes, but also your perseverance.

The endless gravel road turned out to be just a greeting gift, but the real challenge is the pebble beach made up of several meters of high boulders that you have to jump over to cross the glacier's edge. I saw the guide and the porter flickering between the boulders one by one, but when you jump on a boulder, you often can't even find the next foothold, and what is even more terrifying is that you will be in danger of falling from the boulder if you are not careful. If it is light, the skin will open and the flesh will bloom, and if it is heavy, it will be ......

Fortunately, the next day's journey was very easy, arriving at the camp in just a few hours, and SC Johnson slept soundly on the big rock by the ice lake half an hour from the camp before arriving at the camp slowly.

Just as they were drinking afternoon tea and leisurely enjoying this rare relaxation, a drum beat broke the tranquility of the camp. Following the prestige, the porters and cooks of the various teams have formed a circle on a boulder, beating a cheerful rhythm with plastic buckets, while our assistant chef Mantsu is already dancing in the grounds.

The applause was more than pleasant, and so was Manzu's dancing steps, and on several occasions he almost jumped to the edge of the boulder, and then he went further into the abyss, and every time he turned freely, he was rewarded with more applause, drums, and cheers. This guy literally dances in the clouds.

After the Urdukas, the road is a little easier to walk, at least there are no more crumbling boulders, and the glacier is gradually exposed as the altitude increases. Large ridges of ice protruding from the ground began to appear on the side of the road, and the color of the ice was no longer gray-black mixed with sand and gravel, but became more pure, and even a strange and charming blue in the sunlight.

The goal of the trip is Concordia, one of the best viewpoints in the Pamirs, with K2 to the north and three other 8,000-meter peaks to the east – Bloat, Gashulburum I and II – and surrounded by many famous 7,000-metre peaks, and there is no other viewpoint in the world where you can see as many 8,000-metre peaks as you can get up close.

However, it seems that K2 is not willing to give in so easily, and after seven days of difficult trekking, it is difficult to see from Concordia except for clouds and clouds, let alone K2, and even the recent Bloat.

Everyone was crushed in their tents with a gray frustration at the moment, and if it was still this damn weather tomorrow, we were ready to wait one more day. But if we still can't see it the day after tomorrow, our supplies will not allow another day of waiting, and it seems that everything will have to be left to fate......

Without waiting for the next day, Johnson, who had just fallen asleep in the tent, was awakened by the cheers outside, and without even having time to put on his coat, he rushed out of the tent as fast as he could.

At sunset, K2 is already a bit of an outcrop!