ISLAMABAD: Thought to have fallen to his death on Broad Peak, veteran mountaineer Rick Allen was found alive with the help of a drone last week.

“Rick Allen went missing somewhere at 8,000 metres during descent last week from a solo attempt on the 13th highest mountain, Broad Peak. He was part of a small private team that was attempting a new route,” Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) Secretary Karrar Haidri said.

Mr Haidri said the team thought the fall had killed Mr Allen.

“He was missing for 36 hours when members of a Japanese team spotted a rucksack off route at 7,500 metres,” he said, adding that drone operator Bartek Bargeil, who was there to film a documentary on his brother Andrzej Bagiel’s attempt to ski down K2, used his drone to help locate the rucksack and confirmed movement.

A team already on the mountain was directed towards Mr Allen who was found to be reasonably well with minor injuries and some bruises.

ACP quoted climber David Roeske as saying that they were about to leave after a night at Camp-III at 7,000 metres when they received a call on radio about a missing climber who needed rescue high on the mountain. They were told he had fallen off an ice cliff and been solo on the mountain for 36 hours without a stove to melt snow.

The climbers had headed up the mountain with rope, water and medicines looking for him and were later joined by Tenji Sherpa from Summit Climb. With the help of the drone pilot, they were able to locate Rick in a very dangerous terrain. The fall would have taken him either down a crevasse or all the way to the base of the mountain. So, the three of them got him down and into a tent at Camp-III just as it was getting dark.

ACP said the rescued climber was then taken to base camp where he was checked by a doctor before being evacuated to a hospital to recover. ACP said that Rick Allen had decided to descend due to high winds while the rest of the team stayed back at Camp-III to assess their options for the summit.

Regarded as two of the world’s most accomplished climbers, Rick Allen and his climber Sandy Allan were the first to traverse the Mazeno Ridge, the longest in the Himalayas, on Nanga Parbat which is 8, 125 meters in 2012, the official said.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2018