By 1953, four expeditions had attempted to climb K2. Oscar Eckenstein and Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi had led expeditions in 1902 and 1909 respectively, neither of which had made substantial progress, and the Duke of the Abruzzi had declared after his attempt that the mountain would never be climbed. However, two American expeditions in 1938 and 1939 had come closer to success. Charles Houston's 1938 expedition had established the feasibility of the Abruzzi Spur as a route to the summit, reaching the Shoulder at 8000 m, before retreating due to diminishing supplies and the threat of bad weather. Fritz Wiessner's attempt on the 1939 American Karakoram expedition went even higher but ended in disaster when four men disappeared high on the mountain. In spite of the tragedy, the expeditions had shown that climbing K2 was a realistic goal, and further attempts would almost certainly have been made sooner had the Second World War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 not made travel to Kashmir impossible during the 1940s.