On July 31, 1954, the 8,611-meter-high K2 was first climbed by Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli – a triumph of Italian alpinism. To this day, K2 is considered the most dangerous of all the 14 eight-thousanders, and its climbing history is overshadowed by deaths and tragedies. In 2023, Willi Steindl, a hotelier from Kirchberg in Tyrol, set out for K2 as part of a commercial expedition – not knowing that he himself would become both a witness to and a part of the history of this mountain.