Whether you call it an avalanche or a "serac breaking loose", this photo posted on Watershed News of climbers ascending the Bottleneck before the serac broke loose gives you a good idea of what they were climbing through/near. It was taken by Nicholas Rice of Hermosa Beach, CA who was climbing on the same permit as Hugues d'Aubarede, the French climber that died on the mountain, according to his account in the L.A. Times, but turned around before the avalanche.

The NY Times posted a good diagram of the Bottleneck, the location on K2 of the avalanche that led to the disaster, as well as a timeline of events.

Few quick notes before the tragedy becomes the glossy cover for Outside Magazine:

• Marco Confortola was evaced from C1 Tuesday (Associated Press)
• Consider donating to the families of the two climbers (one Sherpa and a Pakistani climber) that died attempting to rescue their comrades
  
• Moment of silence for the fallen and some words of remembrance from the Serb team:
• Our DREN is high in the mountain now. Other members of expedition have had meeting in Base Camp. At usual place named MEMORIAL we were putting memorial attribute for our friend. He was the best one and mountain reserves him for itself. K2 reserves ten climbers more from different countries with our DREN. The accident who took our friend happened 1st of August at 11.15 am (LT) during ascent on the top of K2. In this moment our team (DREN MANDIC, ISO PLANIC, PEDJA ZAGORAC and carrier HUSSEIN) was on mountain-detail named Bottleneck (8150 m). Wishing to replace himself with climber behind him DREN undo his assurance. Fix-rope relocated suddenly. DREN loosed his counterbalance and fell down to 8020 m where his body was stopped. PEDJA was first to arrived to the inanimate body (it was after 15 minutes). ISO and HUSSEIN arrived after him very soon. In this moment I was broking our expedition definitely.  We muffled our friend’s body in the Serbian flag, secured it with pickaxe and put it on 7900 m to the right from direction C4-Bottleneck. Our friend rest near the heaven. Let God bless him.

K2 added to its grim history this weekend. As usual Everestnews and ExWeb are are trying to one up each other, with Everestnews claiming at least 9 climbers dead and ExWeb writing a bizarre (par for the course) explanation of how you count someone "dead" in a mountaineering accident. As far as circumstance leading to the tragedy, it looks like icefall took out fixed lines on or around the bottleneck. EverestNews is reporting the deaths of 2 Pakistani porters (one on the way up), Serb Dren Mandic (on the way up), Norwegian Rolf Bae (ExWeb counts him as missing), two Nepalese, and Koreans Hwang Dong-jin, Park Gyeong-hyo and Kim Hyo-gyeong (9 total believed dead). One of the Nepalese Sherpas and one of the Pakistanis reportedly died during an attempted rescue. Still missing include Irishman Gerard Mcdonnell and Frenchman Hugues d'Aubarede (2 missing). Hugues' blog mentions a porter's name, Karim missing, but hard to tell if he's counted already. Most accounts only say 11 possible dead and missing. This is by far the deadliest day on K2 since Allison Hargreaves and six others died in 1995.

UPDATE: EverestNews is reporting that the Paki Secretary of Tourism is confirming 11 dead.

1. Mr. Kim Hyo - Gyeong Korean
2. Mr. Park Kyeong - Hyo Korean
3. Mr. Hwang Dong - Jin Korean
4. Mr. Jumic Bhote Napali
5. Mr. Pasang Bhote Napali
6. Mr. Jehan Baig Pakistan HP
7. Mr. Meherban Karim Pakistani HP
8. Mr. D'aubarede Hugues Jean - Louis Marie French
9. Mr. Gerard McDonnell Irish
10. Mr. Dren Mandic Serbian
11 Mr. Rolf Bae Norwegian