July 23, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 26, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, July 22: A rescue team has found the body of the Venezuelan climber who went missing 10 days ago on Nanga Parbat, in the western Himalayan region in Diamer district of Northern Areas, Alpine Club president Nazir Sabir told Dawn on Saturday.

Jose Antonio Delgado, 41, one of Latin America’s leading climbers, became stranded in snowstorm at a height of 7,400 meters (24,280 feet) during his ascent of the world’s ninth- highest mountain on July 12.

“The climber is presumed to have died while braving the snowstorm that engulfed Nanga Parbat”, said a press release issued by the ministry of tourism.

The six-member rescue team comprising professional climbers from Northern Areas — Qurban Mohammad, Ghulam Rasool, Muhammad Ibrahim, Ghulam Muhammad, Mohammad and Muhammad Ali — assisted by Army Aviation helicopters, after making a difficult trail through the deep snow on the near vertical slopes, managed to reach 7,200 meters high camp-IV and reported to have found the body of the climber.

It was at about 12.30pm that the team reported finding body of the climber about 300m above camp-IV.

The rescue team was sent by the Alpine Club and the tourism ministry after receiving the SOS message from the climber on July 17. The team with the assistance of Army Aviation helicopters conducted search operation on the 8,125-metre (26,660 feet) Nanga Parbat upto the location of the stranded climber at 7,500m.

Freda Ayala, wife of the Venezuelan climber who is in Islamabad, considering the difficulties in bringing the body down the deep slopes, has decided that her husband’s body be buried at the location where his body was found.

The rescue team has planned to bring the belongings of the climber to hand them over to his family and it would take a couple of days to the rescue team to reach down, an official statement said.

Federal Minister for Tourism, Nilofer Bakhtiar has condoled with the Government of Venezuela and the family of the deceased climber and said the government of Pakistan did its utmost endeavour, even risking the lives of six Pakistani climbers, to rescue the stranded climber up the high slopes of Nanga Parbat.

She specifically lauded the courage and determination of the search party who put their lives at risk to save the life of this climber.

The Venezuelan government through their special representative Neudys Nicasio Rojas, currently in Pakistan, has thanked the government and people of Pakistan for the extraordinary efforts put in by the Ministry of Tourism, Army Aviation, Alpine Club of Pakistan and specially members of the rescue team in searching the missing climber.

Reuters adds: “All the elements suggest it is the body of Jose Antonio Delgado,” Venezuela’s ambassador to Iran told the South American nation’s state-run television broadcaster. “We have communicated with his wife and sent our deepest condolences to his relatives.”

Delgado was one of the most successful Latin American climbers of all time and scaled Mount Everest in 2001.

Nanga Parbat, 26,660 feet (8,126 meters) high and at the western end of the Himalayas, was first conquered by Herman Buhl, of Germany, in 1953 after 31 people died attempting it.

Since then more have died on its slopes and the toll is now 47, far fewer than Everest, but fewer people try to climb Nanga Parbat, which is regarded as technically one of the most difficult mountains to climb.