Gasherbrum II, Mountain summit in Karakoram Range, Pakistan and China.

Gasherbrum II rises to 8,034 meters in elevation, making it the thirteenth highest mountain on Earth, with steep ice walls and glacial terrain forming a harsh alpine environment. The summit is surrounded by broad snow fields crisscrossed with deep crevasses that extend for several kilometers across the massif.

Gasherbrum II was first climbed on 7 July 1956 by Fritz Moravec, Josef Larch and Hans Willenpart via the Southwest Ridge. After an avalanche buried Camp I and their supplies, they made a quick summit attempt, bivouacking in a sack and reaching the top at 11:30 am. In 1984 Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander traversed Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I without returning to base camp, and on 2 February 2011 Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Cory Richards completed the first winter ascent.

The name Gasherbrum comes from the Balti words rgasha ("beautiful") and brum ("mountain"); it is also called G2, and Thomas George Montgomerie labelled it K4 in 1856. The common translation "shining wall" actually refers to Gasherbrum IV, as described by William Martin Conway in 1892. Balti villagers of the Shigar and Baltoro valleys use the peak as a landmark on the glacier route.

Approaches start from the Baltoro Glacier, reached by a trek from Askole; the mountain sits at the glacier's head on the Pakistan–China border. The standard Southwest Ridge route was opened in 1956 and crosses east below the summit pyramid before gaining the Southeast Ridge. Climbers acclimatise on Gasherbrum III or nearby slopes before summit attempts.

Gasherbrum II was the first of the Karakoram's four eight-thousanders to be climbed in winter, when Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Cory Richards reached the top on 2 February 2011. In 1984 Reinhold Messner and Hans Kammerlander crossed it and Gasherbrum I without returning to base camp, filmed by Werner Herzog for Gasherbrum – Der leuchtende Berg.