Adriana Brownlee: 'Russian roulette' for youngest woman to climb K2

Adriana Brownlee says conquering K2 was "Russian roulette", having become the youngest woman to climb the world's second highest mountain.

The 21-year-old said the mountain was an "incredible piece of nature", but mysterious and dangerous.

Miss Brownlee, whose father Tony is from Belfast, has now climbed 10 of the 14 highest peaks in the world, including Everest.

She aims to climb all mountains taller than 8,000m by next spring.

K2, along the Pakistan-China border, stands at 8,611m (28,251ft) and is regarded as one of the most challenging and dangerous mountains to climb.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World at One, she said the mountain was "beautiful and striking", but very difficult to climb.

"You are just suffering the whole time and all you can think about is putting one foot in front of the other," she said.

In dry weather there is a greater risk of rocks falling, and Miss Brownlee said it was impossible to avoid being hit by stones that could be as small as pebbles - or as large as washing machines.

"It's Russian roulette," she said.

"You come down the mountain and between camp two and advanced base camp, it's just a section of a highway of rocks pretty much and they are bouncing in every single direction possible.

"You're just getting showered by them."

Despite these dangers, she said it was her "new home" and if she was not on a mountain she would be in a hotel thinking about climbing the next one.

Her father Tony told the Belfast Telegraph: "She reached the summit on July 28... We were following her progress on a tracker, which gives the digital map of where she was."

His daughter was going to do one or two of the remaining peaks this autumn, then finish them all by next spring.