The Seven-Day Lightning: Sergi Mingote's Broad Peak and K2 Double

In the harsh, glaciated world of the Karakoram, summiting a single 8,000-meter giant is considered the achievement of a lifetime. Summiting two eight-thousanders in an entire season is a major triumph. But in the summer of 2018, Catalan ultra-endurance athlete and mountaineer Sergi Mingote accomplished something that seemed to defy human physiological limits: he conquered both Broad Peak (8,051m) and the savage pyramid of K2 (8,611m) in a mere seven days—climbing both giants strictly without supplemental bottled oxygen.

Mingote was an extraordinary force of nature. Formerly the Mayor of Parets del Vallès in Catalonia, he balanced civic public service with world-class Ironman triathlons and extreme trail running. Entering the summer of 2018, he launched his ‘3x2x8000’ project: an unprecedented quest to summit six eight-thousanders within one year without oxygen.

Part One: The Summit of Broad Peak

Arriving at the Baltoro Glacier in late June, Mingote methodically completed his acclimatization rotations on Broad Peak’s West Ridge. On July 15, taking advantage of a brief high-pressure lull, Mingote departed Camp III at 7,100 meters. Climbing through the night in freezing gales, he navigated the steep col and the long, corniced summit ridge. At 3:30 PM on July 16, 2018, Mingote stood on the 8,051-meter main summit of Broad Peak without supplemental bottled oxygen.

Most mountaineers would have spent the next two weeks resting at Base Camp, celebrating their survival. Mingote had a different vision. He descended rapidly to Broad Peak Base Camp, slept for twenty-four hours, repacked his gear, and on July 19 hiked across the rubble-strewn Godwin-Austen Glacier directly to the foot of K2.

Part Two: The Direct Assault on K2

K2 is universally revered as the most dangerous and physically grueling mountain on Earth. Its Abruzzi Spur is a ceaseless staircase of rock and hard ice, with no flat places to rest. Mingote, his body still burning from the physical exertion of Broad Peak, showed no sign of fatigue. Riding a wave of peak aerobic adaptation, he climbed smoothly through House’s Chimney and the shattered gneiss of the Black Pyramid, reaching Camp III at 7,350 meters on July 21.

On July 22, he moved onto the Shoulder at 8,000 meters to establish Camp IV in the death zone. The weather window was razor-thin; satellite reports warned that severe jet stream squalls would slam into the upper mountain by midday on July 23. Mingote left his tent at 11:00 PM, climbing into the sub-zero dark toward the dreaded Bottleneck couloir.

Summiting the Savage Mountain

Traversing beneath the Great Serac—a monster wall of overhanging blue ice that has claimed dozens of lives—Mingote pushed upward through steep eighty-degree ice flutings without supplemental bottled oxygen. Every movement required absolute concentration; a missed crampon strike meant a deadly three-kilometer fall down the South Face.

Breaking out of the Bottleneck onto the final summit snowfields, Mingote took his final, gasping strides in the morning sun. At 7:45 AM on July 23, 2018—exactly seven days after standing atop Broad Peak—Sergi Mingote reached the 8,611-meter summit of K2.

Standing on the apex of the Savage Mountain, looking across the vast Karakoram wilderness, Mingote realized an athletic milestone of staggering proportions. He had climbed two of the world’s most formidable eight-thousanders in 168 hours on natural lung capacity. This astonishing double-header launched his world record campaign of six eight-thousanders in 367 days, cementing his legacy among the most extraordinary endurance alpinists in human history.