I feel a bit sorry for people who climb K2 but never reach the highest point on the Earth’s surface.
Today’s invention allows them to climb higher than Everest.
It takes the form of a giant weather balloon, carried deflated. Since the atmosphere is so thin at 8000m+, only a small amount of gas from the oxygen bottles already carried would allow such a balloon to go aloft (on a reasonably good weather day).
Climbers would pay out 250m of rope as the balloon rose. This would have many loops attached of the type that mountaineers already use on rock climbs.
Using these, a climber could, under his/own steam, complete K2 with a final climb to a height greater than that of Everest.
