Climber
Kenai, AK
Age: 41

He joined the expedition only months ago, but Sieger, 41, of Kenai, Alaska, brings to the team substantial prior K2 experience. He also went to climb Dhaulagiri this spring before meeting up with the K2000 expedition in Islamabad. This is his third K2 try; he reached Camp 1V, high up on K2's North Ridge, in 1995, and had made it past Camp 2 on the Abruzzi Ridge when his Romanian partner got hit by a rock and died as part of an Italian expedition in 1999.

He has reached 8,000 meters on a number of peaks, including 8,600 meters on Everest, but storms always stopped him just short of the summits. "Bad weather seems to love me," he says wryly, adding this will be his last K2 trip. "K2 wins if I don't make it. But going back one more time to 'the greatest mountain in the world' is a tremendous opportunity," he says. "Especially the North Side is a really magical place, that side is incredibly awesome," he adds. "It's almost incomprehensible that one giant mountain could be so symmetrical."

Unmarried and with no kids, he calls himself a semi-retired oil field technician, spending most of his time back home playing the stock market and dreaming of climbing trips.