Hey, Prime members, you can listen to Against the Odds ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today.

From Wondery, I'm Mike Corey, and this is Against the Odds.

On the ETHNING of August 1st, 2008, Frederick Strang was on K2, the second highest mountain on Earth.

He'd reached Camp 4 at 26,000 feet, just below the desk zone. Earlier that day,

he and the other members of his team decided to call off their summit bid when they saw climbers

backed up on the rope line. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was one that may have saved their

lives. When night fell, most of the climbers who pushed onto the summit still hadn't returned.

In part 2 of our interview with Mountaineer Frederick Strang, Frederick shares his memories of

climbing K2 in 2008 and those harrowing days when disaster struck in the death zone.

Let's go to July of 2008. So you've trained for a while, like a year, right? You've prepared,

and you arrive at K2 for the first time. What goes on in your head when you see the mountain?

You're there. It was wow, gosh. I get the goosebumps when I think about it.

It was almost a religious experience. I remember it so starkly. It was so clear to me.

I first time ever I CK2, I think I said to the camera, my friend Chris Klingke was recording.

I say, wow, and shit. We have to go to the top of that. Yeah, or try. It's this

joy, just childish pool gravitation towards this immense humongous piece of rock and ice and snow

that is towering above everything else. And at the same time, there is this

a pole, this repulsive feeling of fear, real fear in the air, and respect, like,

holy moly. Are we going up that thing? But I think what overweight was this neutral part in me

that, okay, let's take it forward. It is one step at a time. Don't get too overexcited. Don't get

too troubled. I mean, it's a long journey. It's a marathon. It's not a sprint. So I think that

it eventually won. And you spend some time at that base camp, and that's to get

...