In 1993, Kropp returned to Karakoram, this time to climb K2. Initially, he planned to participate in a Swedish expedition, but Kropp realized that if he could reach the top before the expedition's other participants, he would become the first Swede and Scandinavian to reach the top. Kropp therefore joined a Slovenian expedition scheduled to climb the mountain before the Swedes. Another reason why he brought forward the date of his climb was that his Range Rover had remained in Pakistan since his Cho Oyu climb the previous year because customs in Iran refused to allow it through.