ISLAMABAD/GILGIT: At least one as-yet-unidentified British climber fell to his death on Broad Peak on Saturday, while another Romanian mountaineer was said to be fighting for his life on the 8,000-metre peak due to “dehydration and fatigue”.

In addition, a 61-year-old Canadian climber, has gone missing from K2, the world’s second highest mountain, during his descent from Camp 3 to base camp on Friday evening. Dr Richard Cartier, a professional mountaineer, was last spotted while descending from Camp 2 to Camp 1, according to Adventure Pakistan. Two days on, he is yet to be found, despite rescue efforts.

Alpine Club of Pakistan Secretary Karrar Haidri said there was not enough information about what happened to the two climbers on Broad Peak, only the accounts of climbers who had witnessed the calamity that befell the mountaineers.

Quoting Italian mountaineer Francois Cazzanelli, who saw the as-yet-unidentified British climber’s fatal fall, Mr Haidri said that Cazzanelli came across the British climber after 12 hours of climbing, only 30 minutes climb from the summit.

No sign of Canadian trekker on K2 despite rescue efforts

“Here [near the summit], he crossed paths with a British climber who was on his way down. As they passed each other, the Italian climber looked back and saw the British mountaineer suddenly losing his balance in the narrow passageway and crashing into a wall,” the APC official quoted the Italian mountaineer as saying.

Meanwhile, as per the accounts of several climbers, the Romanian mountaineer stuck on Broad Peak — identified only as George — was in “urgent need of evacuation”, while asking for a helicopter to rescue him.

According to ACP, on July 21, Israfil Ashurli from Azerbaijan, along with other climbers, was near the upper section of Broad Peak. At 7,800 meters, Ashurli met the Romanian climber in a “moribund state”.

“The condition of the climber made Mr Ashurli abort his summit push as he attempted to rescue the man and brought him down to 7,300m.”

From Camp III, a number of climbers hailing from Chile, Poland, and Russia moved to supplement the rescue efforts.

They also aborted their summit push so that they could help save the life of the Romanian national.

Mr Haidri said that around afternoon the home team of the Chileans reported that the climbers had started their descent from Camp II to the base camp.

“Given that they were dealing with an injured helpless climber and it was about to get dark, the rescue team was expecting that the day would be really long,” Mr Haidri quoted the Chilean home team.

Meanwhile, the ACP confirmed that on Friday a massive number of mountaineers, guides, Sherpas, and porters were on the K2 summit. As many as 141 people have scaled the mountain and almost half of them were Sherpa and Pakistani support teams.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2022