ISLAMABAD: Another crisis ended happily after a climber who ran into trouble in a possible icefall was rescued by fellow Polish, American and Pakistani mountaineers on Saturday.

“This time it was a Pakistani porter who needed assistance on the Gasherbrum glacier. The stricken climber had to be lowered down the slopes in a makeshift sled by Denis Urubko, a Kazakh climber, and Sergi Mignote from Spain,” said Alpine Club of Pakistan Secretary Karrar Haidri.

The official said on Sunday that Denis Urubko assisted in the third rescue mission to get the Pakistani porter to safety after rescuing a Lithuanian climber from the same glacier, who was suffering from fatigue and extreme cold.

ACP praises Kazakh climber for assistance in rescue missions

The official praised Denis Urubko for assisting in the second and third rescue missions in the past five days, after helping extract Francesco Cassardo on Gasherbrum-VII piercing the horizon at 6,955 metres earlier this week.

The ACP said that climbing on K2 was now being considered done and all K2 climbers had now safely returned to the base camp.

“This year’s highlights on K2 were especially the climbers who captured the peak without supplemental oxygen. Some of the mountaineers who made no-O2 ascent included Hungarian Szilard Suhajda who also climbed without the help of porters.

Also, equally elated were Carla Perez who became the first South American woman to summit both the Mount Everest and K2 without bottled O2,” Mr Haidri said while quoting the climbers.

He congratulated the four of 19 mountaineers from the Seven Summit Treks who made the K2 summit without bottled oxygen. Among the no O2-ascent were David Roeske of the US, Johan Wenzel of Austria, German Anja Karena Blacha and Moesses Fiamonicini from Brazil.

“The final bow goes to Nepalese Nirmal Purja who has become the man of this summer season for his blitz of ascents on Broak Peak and K2,” Mr Haidri said.

According to ACP, Nirmal Purja scaled 11 of the 14 8,000ers peaks around the world in three months, including all the five highest peaks in Pakistan.

It said that Nirmal Purja had left three more peaks on his list; Manaslu in Nepal, Shishapangma in Tibet and Cho Oyu on the Nepalese and Tibetan border.

However, one of the most anticipated successful summit attempts were expected to be made by Swiss climber Mike Horn and his team, the ACP said. Mike Horn was among the climbers who decided to scale K2 another day and abandoned their dreams earlier on.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019