Descending in darkness in highly dangerous, as is bivouacking at 27,000 feet without shelter in intense cold. To avoid these dangers, climbers should have turned back by 2 pm. Instead, most pressed on to the top, not reaching their goal until much later. Eighteen reached the top - a K2 record - with the last team arriving at 7 pm. As a result, some decided to stop for the night while others made their way back down the mountain. That’s when disaster struck. A huge overhanging piece of ice broke off. Tumbling through the Bottleneck, it buried one climber and away the ropes. Subsequent icefalls and avalanches, as well as the elements, disorientation, this climbing conditions, would take additional lives. The total death toll was 11, making one of the worst mountaineering disasters ever.
While nothing could have prevented the huge icefall, the los of life was greater than it should have been. To begin, members of the various expeditions never bonded but instead remained strangers. They had difficulty communicating with each other because of language differences and operated independently. Members of some teams were highly critical of the preparation and skills of those on other teams. This apparently contributed to a disregard for human life when crisis struck. Far too many ignored those in need, failing to offer assistance to those likely to perish. According to a Dutch survivor, "Everybody was fighting for himself and I do not understand why everybody were leaving each other.”