Probably, yes (though I might add Hillary always claimed Tenzing and him reached the top together and deserve equal credit). It's just about conceivable that some local had done it but unlikely since the mountain is well known enough that it would have been legendary.
Fun fact. K2 is so remote and hostile that K2 is in fact it's original name. It's barely even visible from the farthest regular human travel in the region and there's no reason to go there. It is, to this date, much more deadly than going to space So we can be pretty damn sure K2 was climbed by Lacidelli first.
Yeah probably, it always sounds like you're giving credit to them when you assert it but the reasonable thing to do when you see a massive, dangerous, inhospitable peak is to just not climb it. it isn't like space where we can do experiments and have useful satellites up there and shit. planes and balloons were going higher decades before that MF did that shit. everyone going up that fucker is a tourist doing it for vanitie
btw the famous guys who made the prior attempt who died and only a month ago the foot of one of them was found after the other person was discovered in the 90s, they have this whole thing with MAYBE having a camera on them. Because a Chinese expedition reported one of the corpses decades ago and one member who soon died MAY have to a european expedition that he confirmed it was a specific guy and MAYBE he had the camera on his corpse, people really badly want China to have secretly stolen the camera and nothing else and then fucked up the film when recovering it.
All because China had the first expedition that reached the summit from a more difficult path. Every article on it is heresay and "a friend of a friend" followed by "but the removed always lie so if they don't confirm my random thought then it must be true" it is annoying.
Wikipedia for once is neutral and thus it must be paid off. Cause how could they dare to only cite actual sources!?!?!?
Every article that seeks to debunk it bring up that it was a point of national pride, while sucking off sir such and such who honored the crown or whatever. Like they cannot deal with anyone else feeling pride, only the white man can.
The wiki page on the ascent is kind of hilarious with how it makes the scepticism seem completely racially motivated:
Subsequent ascents corroborated the expedition report's descriptions of the Third Step and the terrain near the summit, and demonstrated the viability of ascending without oxygen
Lawrence Wager concluded that the 25 May photos were taken above the Second Step by comparing them to photos from the 1933 and 1953 expeditions
contemporary written accounts from the 1960 expedition "incorporate descriptions of topographical details of the final pyramid that could only have been obtained if the party had indeed reached the top."
A study of the video determined that it had been taken above 8,700 m, demonstrating that the party had overcome the crux of the way to the summit
vs
"there was a cliff they said was 3m tall but actually it's 8m tall"
Every article that seeks to debunk it bring up that it was a point of national pride, while sucking off sir such and such who honored the crown or whatever. Like they cannot deal with anyone else feeling pride, only the white man can.
reminded me of:
Respect for the salvation of the knife and the anebas is the source of life of the behas, without this our fate would be death and ruin. Let us therefore foster in our lungs higher ideals, and steadfast devotion to the bikru and the anebas. A true Behin lives or dies with his knife and boeto.
The respect for military virtues and the national ideal is the source of the life of the peoples, without which our fate would be death and ruin. Let us therefore foster higher ideas in our heart, our steadfast devotion to the Bible and our country, for a British patriot lives or dies with his sword and honour.
Every article that seeks to debunk it bring up that it was a point of national pride, while sucking off sir such and such who honored the crown or whatever. Like they cannot deal with anyone else feeling pride, only the white man can.
Expect to see a HUGE amount of this in the west as the Chinese Lunar missions get underway. You'd better believe that people will insist all sorts of crazy stories rather than admit that Chinese people can want to do cool things.