GILGIT: Italian climbers called off their attempt to climb the 8,034-metre Gasherbrum I in the Karakoram mountain range after they suffered injuries.

On Sunday, Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger were crossing a crevasse (a deep open crack in thick ice) when Moro fell inside the opening. Lunger also injured herself as she was dragged into the crevasse with Moro because of the harness that they were sharing, according to the details shared by Moro on his Facebook post.

Two hours later they somehow managed to emerge from the crevasse and reached the base camp from where they were evacuated and shifted to Skardu by Pakistan Army helicopters on Monday, according to tour operator Naik Naam Karim.

“The condition of the climbers is stable,” Mr Karim told Dawn.

Both were shifted to Skardu by army copters

He also confirmed that the mountaineers had called off their attempt to scale Gasherbrum I.

Gasherbrum I is the 11th highest peak in the world and is located on the border of China-Pakistan.

Moro, 52 and Lunger, 33 began their bid to scale the Gasherbrum peaks during the last week of December. They had planned to traverse the two peaks in a single push via the Gasherbrum La at 6,400 metres. They first began with Gasherbrum I in the first week of January.

Detailing further about their fall, Moro wrote on his Facebook newsfeed in Italian and English: “All’s well that ends well. Without going too far around the concept, yesterday we really came just a breath away from a tragic and disastrous epilogue for both Tamara and me. We were planning to spend two nights on the mountain, reach camp 1, sleep there and then head to camp 2 the next day.

“We were finally out of the icefall, we had passed the last big crevasse and proceeded to the summit plateau. Always tied up because we knew that the crevasses were always lurking and antennas were always straight but the morale was high and the satisfaction of having overcome everything. The big ice maze.

“But the day was not over and what lay ahead was terrible. Approaching a crevasse I put myself in position as always to secure Tamara who first crossed it and then moved into the safety zone, 20 meters beyond the crevasse.

“Then it was my turn and after a split second, a chasm opened under my feet and I fell. Tamara suffered such a violent tear that she literally flew to the edge of the crevasse while I free falling upside down for 20 meters banging back legs and buttocks on the blades of ice suspended in the endless gut where I continued to descend.

Moro’s team who wrote the post on his behalf, signed off with the hashtag #neverstopexploring, indicating that the pair will make another bid in the near future.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2020