The attempt by Slovenian Alpine climber and extreme skier Davo Karničar to become the first person to ski down K2 has been abandoned for the time being.
Karničar (54) blamed a back injury and bad weather on the mountain for his decision.
The world’s second highest mountain remains one of the remaining challenges for extreme skiers to make a non-stop descent of.
In August 2010 Swedish mountaineer and extreme skier Fredrik Ericsson died near the summit on the 8,611m peak when he fell 1,000 metres after a rock dislodged on his ascent.
Davo Karničar skied from the summit of Everest on October 7, 2000 and was the first person to make a complete ski descent from the Seven Summits (Kit DesLauriers had earlier skied from the top of all of the seven summits but did not accomplish complete descents on Everest and Denali). Karničar climbed but didn’t make the full ski descent of K2 in 1993.