Mountain Madness interests. While leading Mountain Madness, Fischer became renowned for his ascents of the world's highest mountains made without the use of supplemental oxygen. Fischer and Wally Berg were the first Americans to summit Lhotse, the world's fourth highest mountain (27,940 feet / 8516 m), located next to Mount Everest. He and Ed Viesturs were the first Americans to summit K2, (28,251 feet / 8611m) in the Karakoram of Pakistan without supplemental oxygen. During his stewardship of Mountain Madness, Fischer led social and environmental initiatives to help people in the countries in which Mountain Madness traveled. As the leaders of the
Baltistan sandy desert now extending from Sundus to Skardu Airport was a prosperous town. Skardu had hardly recovered from the shock of the death of Anchan when it was flooded. In 1845, the area was seized by the Dogras. Skardu has several tourist resorts and many natural features, including plains, mountains and mountain-valley lakes. The Deosai plain, Satpara Lake and Basho also host tourists. North of Skardu, the Shigar Valley offers plains, hiking tracks, peaks and campsites. Other valleys in Baltistan region are Khaplu, Rondu, Kachura Lake and Kharmang. Baltistan is a rocky wilderness of around , with the largest cluster