Mountaineer Terence 'Banjo' Bannon is trying to scale K2

Terence 'Banjo' Bannon is attempting to climb K2, the world's second highest peak.

It has been tough going so far for the Newry man, who said he had experienced "seven days of madness" on the mountain, which stands 8,611 metres above sea level.

"In the last two days, we've got to camp four but had to turn back because of bad weather and soft snow," he told BBC Radio Ulster.

It's a lot more technical - there's a lot of rock and ice, it's more vertical and the weather comes in very quickly Terence 'Banjo' Bannon Comparing K2 with Everest

"I collected more gear and had to come up solo, all the way up to camp three, where I met up with the rest of the team."

Over the years K2 has been called the mountain of mountains, the savage mountain or more plainly, a death trap.

At the moment, Banjo is waiting at base camp, exhausted and waiting for good weather before having another crack at the mountain.

"We've got our camps dug into the snow now - we've buried our equipment this time instead of just putting up a tent, because nothing's going to stand up to 160mph winds," he said.

Banjo said K2 posed a different range of challenges from Everest.

Can you imagine rocks the size of cars coming down in a big whoosh? That's the nature of the mountain Terence 'Banjo' Bannon

"If you're caught in a storm, it could be the end of you.

"The altitude is slightly less than Everest, but because of the barometric pressure, it feels a lot more than about 30,000 feet - it's a much colder mountain.

"Can you imagine rocks the size of cars coming down in a big whoosh? That's the nature of the mountain."

In May 2003, Bannon and his teammate, New Zealander Jamie McGuinness, reached the summit of Mount Everest.

K2 was first scaled in July 1954 by two Italian climbers, Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni.