French climber says he took his time in speed record K2 summit

SKARDU, Pakistan: French mountaineer Benjamin Vedrines counted every second as he made history’s fastest-ever ascent of K2, but says he doesn’t add up the growing number of records to his name.

“It’s not the records themselves that interest me, it’s also the links that I create with certain mountains and especially in the case of K2,” the 32-year-old told AFP. “It fascinated me from the first moment I saw it.”

Vedrines scaled the world’s second-highest mountain -- standing at 8,611 metres (28,251 feet) on the border of Pakistan and China -- in 10 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds on July 28. The ascent slashed by more than half the previous record for climbing K2 without bottled oxygen, completed in 23 hours by fellow Frenchman Benoit Chamoux in 1986.

The remarkable feat on the “Savage Mountain” came exactly two years to the day since Vedrines was forced to abort his first attempt as the high altitude starved his brain of oxygen a mere 200 metres from the top.

While his record has made headlines worldwide for its speed, for Vedrines it is remarkable for the opposite reason -- because it was so long in the making. “I wanted to arrive there really ready, prepared, body, mind,” he said. “I pay attention to doing things well, to building them. These are projects that take time.”

- ‘Go slow to go fast’ -

Vedrines is considered one of France’s pre-eminent climbers and in 2022 set a speed record climbing Pakistan’s Broad Peak -- the world’s 12th highest mountain -- before descending by paraglider.

Back home in the French Alps he has also broken a host of records. He uses the “alpine style” of climbing which relies on minimal use of cumbersome ropes in favour of moving swiftly up the slopes. But without the aid of oxygen tanks to counteract the thin atmosphere, he faced a paradox on K2 -- needing to move quickly, in one of the world’s most unforgiving environments, with minimal effort.

“It requires knowing how to go slowly to go fast,” he quips. “It is a little bit of a contradiction that we have to negotiate.” To make matters worse, poor weather on the mountain prevented his attempts to acclimatise.

“I had to face a lot of unforeseen events during this expedition,” he said. “I knew how to persevere. I knew how to be determined, patient and above all humble because this K2 mountain requires a lot of humility.”