GUIDE · HISTORY

20 JUL 2026

Broad Peak:
History, Route, and Why the Mountain’s Name Is True

It is called Broad Peak for the simple reason that it is broad — a summit ridge over a kilometre and a half long, and a mountain that has never been easy despite its modest reputation.

At 8,051 metres, Broad Peak is the twelfth-highest mountain on Earth and the third-highest in the Karakoram. It sits just eight kilometres from K2, sharing the same Godwin-Austen Glacier and the same immense northern sky. Its name comes from the astonishing width of its summit — the ridge stretches more than 1.5 kilometres and carries three separate summits.

The 1957 First Ascent

In the summer of 1957, an Austrian expedition of just four climbers — Marcus Schmuck, Fritz Wintersteller, Kurt Diemberger and Hermann Buhl — walked up the Baltoro Glacier and climbed Broad Peak without oxygen, without porters above base camp and without support. It was a feat of pure, unsupported alpinism that still reads as astonishing today. The quartet split over summit-day tactics, and within the season Buhl would die on nearby Chogolisa.

The Route That Climbers Follow

The standard route follows the West Spur, sometimes called the normal route. From Base Camp at 4,850 metres on the Godwin-Austen Glacier, climbers ascend through camps on the rocky lower slopes, cross the broad snow face, and reach Camp III at around 7,100 metres. Summit day is famously long — 15 to 20 hours — and ends in the mountain's crux: the long, exposed ridge where a false summit has fooled many into turning around too early.

The Warning Written in Snow

Broad Peak has long been described as one of the more "approachable" eight-thousanders. On the morning of 30 July 2026, an avalanche on its west ridge swept away ten climbers, including the record-holder Nirmal Purja. It was the deadliest day in the mountain's history, and a permanent correction to the word "easy". Read the full account →

“Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down.” — Nirmal Purja