‘Altitude sickness’ claims Polish mountaineer’s life

ISLAMABAD: A rescue operation organised by the Karakorum Expeditions is underway to bring a Pakistani climber Asif Bhatti from the Nanga Parbat Mountain, some 7,500 metres above the sea level.

An Azerbaijani mountaineer Isfrafyl is also stranded up there and waiting to be rescued.

Things became pretty difficult for Asif Bhatti when he suffered from snow blindness. This was the time when he was about to start his descent journey.

A group of mountaineers, The Karakorum Club shared the news of the Pakistani, Azerbaijani on social media.

“A Pakistani climber Asif Bhatti, who is also a university professor from Islamabad, is stuck on Nanga Parbat at an altitude of around 7500 meters. He is suffering from snow blindness and is unable to descend on his own. A group of climbers from the @KE_xpeditions Shimshal are preparing for a rescue mission to help him. They are currently waiting for heli to transport them to the higher camps,” it said.

Bhatti started his descent towards Camp 3 at the mountain on Tuesday but could not continue due to severe weather conditions.

Known as the “killer mountain,” Nanga Parbat is at an altitude of 8,125 meters (26,660 feet) from the sea level and is recognized as the world’s ninth-highest peak.

Several climbers previously died while attempting to summit the mountain.

The Nanga Parbat expedition proved ominous not only for the Pakistani and the Azeri climbers, a Polish climber Pawel Tomasz Kopec also fell victim to the treacherous mountain and died because of the acute altitude sickness.

Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan (APC) Karrar Haidri in an update on Tuesday revealed that Pawel Tomasz Kopec died due to acute altitude sickness after conquering the treacherous Nanga Parbat.

“Kopec and his two compatriots – Piotr Krzyzowski and Waldemar Kowalewski summited Nanga Parbat on Sunday,” said Haidri adding “They achieved their target without supplemental oxygen at different times of the day. Krzyzowski and Kowalewski managed to reach camp 3 at midnight but Kopec faced problems while descending due to harsh weather conditions.”

He eventually lost his life at a height of 7,400 metres after getting exhausted and dehydrated.

The Karakorum Club also shared the news of his death at its official twitter handle.

“Tragic news from #NangaParbat. A mountaineer from #Poland, Powel Kopac, has died at an altitude of 7300 meters on his way back from the summit of Nanga Parbat. According to reports, Paul suffered from acute mountain sickness which resulted in a cardiac attack,” the club said in a tweet.

With a death probability of 21 percent, Nanga Parbat continues to claim its place among the top five most dangerous mountains in the world. Prior to Kopec, a total of 85 climbers died in their attempts to conquer it.

It may be mentioned here that two Pakistani women mountaineers Naila Kiani and Samina Baig made history on Sunday by scaling Nanga Parbat along with a group of over a dozen local and international climbers. The feat made Kiani and Baig the first Pakistani women to summit the peak.

Captions:

1) Pakistani climber Asif Bhatti struck by snow blindness

2) Polish Climber Pawel Tomasz

Credit: Supplied