page_title: 1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2
section_title: Voyage out
hierarchical_section_title: 1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2 / Preparation for 1939 expedition / Voyage out
caption_attribution_description: Italienisch-Ostafrika, Massana (Massawa, Massaua): Hafen; Wartende Menschen am Quai vor dem Schiff
context_page_description: The unsuccessful 1939 American Karakoram expedition to K2 was the second U.S. attempt on the unclimbed second-highest mountain in the world, following the 1938 reconnaissance expedition. Fritz Wiessner, the leader of the expedition, and Pasang Dawa Lama got to within 800 feet of the summit of K2 via the Abruzzi Ridge – a difficult and arduous route – with Wiessner doing practically all the lead climbing. Through a series of mishaps one of the team members, Dudley Wolfe, was left stranded near the top of the mountain after his companions had descended to base camp. Three attempts were made to rescue Wolfe. On the second attempt three Sherpas reached him after he had been alone for a week at over 24,000 feet but he refused to try to descend. Two days later the Sherpas again tried to rescue him but they were never seen again. A final rescue effort was abandoned when all hope for the four climbers had been lost.
  The deaths and the apparently badly organized nature of the expedition led to considerable acrimony between team members and commentators back in America.
context_section_description: Durrance sailed to Germany and, after some skiing in Switzerland, went to Genoa where he boarded SS Conte Biancamano on March 29, 1939. He was there told that Vittorio Sella, a veteran of the 1909 Abruzzi expedition and now the grand old man of mountain photography, was asking to meet members of the expedition. While they were talking Wiessner and Wolfe turned up and Wiessner was visibly upset – the intention had been that he, Wiessner, would greet Sella first. Durrance felt slighted and later said he would have returned home if he had the money. At Naples, Cranmer, Cromwell and Sheldon joined the ship and a spirit of comradeship was regained. They travelled first-class in style arriving in Bombay on April 10 from where they took a forty-hour train journey to Rawalpindi. In two cars they drove 180 miles (290 km) to Srinagar in the Vale of Kashmir.
caption: SS Conte Biancamano, Massawa, 1939 or 1940
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