World | Pakistan
9 climbers feared dead in avalanche on K-2
Helicopters flew to the world's second-highest mountain, K-2, to try to rescue a stranded Italian climber after an avalanche at more than 26,250 feet left at least nine mountaineers missing and feared dead.
- AP
- Published: 17:50 August 3, 2008
Islamabad: Helicopters flew to the world's second-highest mountain, K-2, to try to rescue a stranded Italian climber after an avalanche at more than 26,250 feet left at least nine mountaineers missing and feared dead.
Two rescue choppers took off from Skardu, the town nearest K-2, early on Monday, on a mission to rescue the Italian climber, Marco Confortola, who is suffering from "serious frostbite," said Ilyas Ahmed Mirza, an official at the Askari Aviation helicopter service.
The helicopters will also evacuate four other climbers who returned to a base camp on K-2, Mirza said.
K-2 is regarded by mountaineers as more challenging to conquer than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.
The reported toll of nine dead from the avalanche was the highest from a single incident on K-2 since at least 1995, when seven climbers died after being caught in a fierce storm.
A total of 22 people, mostly foreigners, in eight different groups scaled K-2's summit on Friday, said Nazir Sabir of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. It remained unclear how many climbers were still on the mountain.
As the mountaineers made their way down, the avalanche cut ropes used to cross a treacherous wall of ice some 1,148 feet below the 28,250-foot summit, sweeping some climbers to their deaths and stranding others at a height where they would likely succumb to exposure, Sabir said.
Accounts varied on the number of dead and how they died. Local army spokesman Maj Farooq Firoz declined to provide a figure before authorities had spoken with survivors.
But Sabir said nine people died in the avalanche. Included in that number, were two rescuers - a Nepalese sherpa and a Pakistani porter - who survivors said fell to their death.
Mohammed Akram, vice president of the Adventure Foundation of Pakistan, a nonprofit organisation, said one rescue team dispatched Sunday had reached a Dutchman and an Italian suffering from frostbite and were helping them down toward a camp at an altitude of 21,325 feet.
He said helicopter crews spotted survivors, but could not pluck them to safety because the air is too thin for them to operate so high.
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