Historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela explores life, love and death on Earth's second-tallest peak in the new season of Extreme. Straddling the border of Pakistan and China in the Karakoram mountain range, K2 is often referred to as the "savage mountain". Towering 8,611m and reaching into the heavens like a snowcapped pyramid, K2 is the world's second-tallest mountain (topped only by Everest) and arguably the hardest to climb.
In Peak Danger, the second season of BBC's Extreme podcast, host and historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela chronicles the harrowing tale of newlyweds Cecilie Skog and Rolf Bae, who scaled K2 in 2008 – and found themselves in a disaster that would see 11 climbers lose their lives in two days. For Skog, the allure of the mountains came early. She was born surrounded by formidable peaks and explains that even as a child, she often found herself drawn to the alpine heights all around her.
Like many climbers, she called the rush of scaling mountains "addictive". "I grew up in Ålesund, a little town on the west coast of Norway, and surrounding this little town is mountains everywhere. It is really beautiful there," Skog says on the podcast.
"These mountains, they should have given it with, like a warning sign: 'this is really addictive.'" While climbing mountains all over the world, Skog also found love and married climber Rolf Bae. After years of honing their skills, the couple decided their honeymoon would be the perfect opportunity to venture to Asia and att.
