GILGIT: Several mountaineers set world re­­cords on K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, as climbers rushed to complete their summits with the season coming to a close.

While at least 65 climbers, including 10 Pakis­tanis, summited the 8,611 metres-high mountain on Monday, several mountaineers also had to end their attempts due to altitude sickness.

On Sunday, Japanese climber Naoko Watana­­be ascended the mountain for a third time, while France’s Benjamin Vedrines set a record by completing the summit in 11 hours without oxygen.

Mr Vedrines achieved his feat after being at the base camp for over 40 days, he said in a Facebook post.

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Ms Watanabe, who became the first female climber to summit the world’s second-highest mountain thrice, was among 18 climbers who completed the summit over the weekend, their expedition organiser, Seven Summit Treks, announced.

A team of local climbers, including Naseeba Sultana Sirbaz Khan, Abdul Joshi, Ejaz Ka­­rim, Faryad, Sherzad Karim, Ali Muhammad Sarpara and Muhammad Ali Sadpara, also completed the summit on Monday. It was organised by Force Command Northern Areas.

Another team of 18 climbers, led by Mingma G., summited the peak on Sunday morning, according to the expedition organiser Imagine Nepal. Separately, nine members of the 8K K2 Expedition team, five of the Madison K2 Expedition team and four of the Glacier Himalaya K2 team also achieved the feat.

Porter’s body found

While several mountaineers celebrated their triumphs, a team of five climbers has scaled the treacherous mountain for a starkly different mission — retrieving the body of a porter who died last year. A team of local climbers, led by Naila Kiani, successfully retrieved the body of Mohammad Hassan Shigri from a height of 8,200m between the Traverse and Bottleneck sections of K2. Mr Shigri died last year while fixing ropes for an expedition team. A video went viral after his demise, showing mountaineers climbing over his body during their summit push.

The five-member team started their mission from Camp 3 between Saturday and Sunday in the “first ever” mission of its kind, according to Ms Kiani.

Pakistan Army helicopters also rescued six foreign climbers from the K2 base camp who abandoned their summits after developing high-altitude sickness, according to the military’s media wing.

The climbers from the US, Chile, Mace­donia and Nepal were rescued in three different heli sorties after they called for help. They have been shifted to Skardu Hospital.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2024