Gilgit: An Afghan climber has lost his life at Camp 4 on K2 while attempting to scale the world’s second highest mountain, while a French climber awaits rescue at K2 Base Camp after he was diagnosed with illness at high altitude. Came down with
Ali Akbar Sakhi, Afghanistan’s first mountaineer to attempt to climb the summit, died on the mountain of a heart attack. He was part of the Pakistani K2 Expeditionary Force.
Meanwhile, at least one Nepalese rope-fixing team comprising five climbers managed to reach K2 at around 9 pm on Thursday. Adventure Pakistan’s Muhammad Ali Nagri told dawn That the Nepalese team put ropes on the top of the peak. “Now the K2 route has been opened for climbers,” he said.
The five Sherpa guides of 8K Expeditions are Pasdawa Sherpa and Chhiring Namgyal, Siddhi Ghisingy of Madison Mountaineering, Dorji Geljen Sherpa and Rinji Sherpa.
French Trekker in critical condition at K2 Base Camp; Nepalese climber becomes first to climb all 8000+ peaks twice
trapped in base camp
Meanwhile, French trekker Nadia Sara, who is stuck at the base camp near Concordia, has appealed to the government to rescue her by helicopter. Karrar Hydari, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told dawn An Army helicopter will fly to Concordia in the morning to airlift the stranded trekker.
Tour organizer Wajahat told dawn That a 13-member team of foreign trekkers including two Pakistanis started their base camp trek from Skardu around 10 days back. He said Ms Sarah complained of shortness of breath at Concordia and started vomiting on Wednesday. “He has breathing problems and is vomiting continuously, the tour operator said, urging the government to save him.
Road open to K2
Talking about the rope-fixing team, Muhammad Ali Nigri of Adventure Pakistan said, “K2 has been opened for climbers.” A group of climbers waiting at Camp 4 will reach the final summit on Thursday night, he said, adding that several summits are expected today.
8K Expeditions said in a statement that the rope-fixing team reached the top in “two-three hours due to strong winds” near the summit.
A total of 170 climbers, including 13 Pakistanis, plan to start the K2 summit in three groups from Camp 4 on Thursday night. Shimshal mountaineer Abdul Wahab, who has been in touch with Pakistani climbers, said as part of a joint strategy, the climbers divided themselves into three groups.
Pakistani climbers including Samina Baig from Shimshaal, Naila Kiyani from Dubai, Abdul Joshi from Shimshal, Sirbaz Khan from Hunza, Wajid Nagri from Nagar and eight climbers from Shimshal waited at Camp 3 and Camp 4 to start the climb to the summit. The climbers had not started pushing the summit until the writing of this story.
gold sherpa
Noted Nepalese mountaineer Sanu Sherpa, 47, climbed Gasherbrum-II (8,035m) on Thursday morning, becoming the first climber in the world to twice summit all 14 peaks above 8,000m.
The summit was confirmed by Sakhawat Hussain of Karakoram, partner of Pioneer Adventure. According to a statement released by Pioneer Adventure, Sanu was a seasoned climber with many acclaimed achievements but with little recognition. It said that his success was imminent and he said that his long cherished dream of becoming the first climber to scale these mountains twice had come true.
A few weeks back, Sanu had climbed Nanga Parbat.
Published in Dawn, July 22, 2022