GILGIT: Bad weather has hampered efforts of local and foreign climbers to scale various peaks, including K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum-I and Gasherbrum II, while at least two Pakistani mountaineers who had lost contact with their base camp while descending Nanga Parbat were spotted on Tuesday.

Flooding caused by melting glaciers has already blocked K2 Road at multiple locations, making it difficult for trekkers and expedition teams to reach the base camps of various mountains, including that of the world’s second highest peak.

More than 300 international climbers are waiting at K2 base camp to start summit push. Some climbers had established camp-3 but they had to return to the base camp due to inclement weather at higher altitude.

Also, the ‘mountaineer mom’ Naila Kiani, who had set a record by becoming the first Pakistani woman to have conquered an 8,000m, Gasherbrum-II, in Pakistan, is at K2 base camp. According to her, she and her team had completed their rotation to camp-2 two days ago and are now waiting for good weather for next rotation.

Two missing mountaineers spotted through a telescope

Speaking to Dawn, tour operator Sikhawat Hussain said weather would not be stable until next week.

Over 100 climbers were waiting at base camp to scale Broad Peak, Gasherbrum-I, Gasherbrum-II and Nanga Parbat.

On Monday evening, it was reported that two Pakistani mountaineers, Imtiaz Sadpara from Skardu and Hasan Shigri from Shigar, had lost contact with the base camp while descending from Nanga Parbat (8,126m) after conquering it on July 10, amid deteriorating weather conditions. On Tuesday, the high altitude police at Diamer confirmed to the authorities that they managed to spot the missing climbers at camp-3 of Nanga Parbat, through a telescope from base camp.

Earlier this month, two climbers Shehroze Kashif and Fazal Ali were rescued after they had gone missing while descending from the world’s ninth highest peak.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2022