ISLAMABAD: After watching his team mate fall to his death, Russian climber Alexander Gukov is trapped on Latok-I, the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) has said.

“I need help, I have to be evacuated, Sergey fell, I’m hanging on to the wall without equipment,” Gukov said in an SOS message three days ago, ACP Secretary Karrar Haidri said on Friday.

ACP said the Russian mountaineer is trapped at 6,200 metres on Latok-I, which is 7,145 metres high and is situated in the Karakorum Range.

A helicopter could not lift early Friday morning due to bad weather and the rescue team is waiting for the weather to clear in order to be transported to the Latok-I base camp, Mr Haidri said.

He added that Alexander Gukov and Sergey Glazunov had been aiming to ascend through the mountain’s North Ridge, first attempted in 1978.

In the following 40 years, the fearsome and seemingly never-ending crest line has been attempted by many of the world’s leading alpinists, none of whom succeeded. Both the Russian climbers, Mr Haidri said, had also returned after a failed attempt in 2017 and had come to try again.

Mr Haidri said the two Russian alpinists had left base camp two weeks ago with only five days worth of food and water. The aim was to summit via the same challenging route attempted first 40 years ago, an arduous 2,400 metre climb that has turned back many of the world’s best mountaineers.

“A rescue operation has now been organised. Rescuers had hoped they will be able to send a helicopter to air lift Gukov directly from the mountain. However, the bad weather has made flying conditions dangerous. Cloud cover and rain have made visibility poor,” he said.

Mr Haidri confirmed the death of Sergey Glazunov, whose body was spotted close to base camp.

ACP said several top mountaineers have volunteered to help with the rescue operation. Andrzej Bargiel, who just returned from making the first ever ski descent of K2, has volunteered to assist with the rescue operation along with Adam Bielecki, Jacek Czech, Herve Barmese and David Goettler.

So far, the bad weather has meant all attempts to take them to base camp at Latok-I have failed.

“The strategy so far is to drop off the rescue team as close to the stranded mountaineer as possible provided the weather improves and try to pull Gukov from the mountain by helicopter. If the bad weather persists, the teams will have to proceed on foot,” Mr Haidri said.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2018