ISLAMABAD — An investigation has been launched into the loss of life of a Pakistani porter close to the height of the world’s most treacherous mountain, a Pakistani mountaineer mentioned Saturday, following allegations that dozens of climbers keen to achieve the summit had walked previous the person after he was gravely injured in a fall.
The accusations surrounding occasions on July 27 on K2, the world’s second-highest peak, overshadowed a document established by Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Sherpa information Tenjin. By climbing K2 that day, they grew to become the world’s quickest climbers, scaling the world’s 14 highest mountains in 92 days.
Harila rejected any duty for the loss of life of the porter, Mohammed Hassan, a 27-year-old father of three who slipped and fell off a slim path in a very harmful space of K2 often called the bottleneck. In an Instagram publish Friday, she wrote that she felt “offended at how many individuals have been blaming others for this tragic loss of life” and that nobody was at fault.
Harila was defending herself towards allegations from two different climbers who had been on K2 that day, Austrian Wilhelm Steindl and German Philip Flaemig. The pair had aborted their climb due to troublesome climate situations, however mentioned they reconstructed the occasions later by reviewing drone footage.
The footage confirmed dozens of climbers passing a gravely injured Hassan as an alternative of coming to his rescue, Steindl informed The Related Press on Saturday. He alleged that the porter may have been saved if the opposite climbers, together with Harila and her staff, had given up makes an attempt to achieve the summit.
“There’s a double commonplace right here. If I or another Westerner had been mendacity there, all the things would have been performed to avoid wasting them,” Steindl mentioned. “Everybody would have needed to flip again to deliver the injured individual again all the way down to the valley.”
Harila informed Sky Information that Hassan had been dangling from a rope, head down, after his fall on the bottleneck, which she described as “in all probability essentially the most harmful a part of K2.” She mentioned that after about an hour, her staff was in a position to pull him again onto the path.
Sooner or later, she and one other individual from her staff determined to proceed to the highest whereas one other staff member stayed with Hassan, giving him heat water and oxygen from his personal masks, the climber mentioned.
Harila mentioned she determined to proceed shifting towards the summit as a result of her ahead fixing staff additionally bumped into difficulties which she didn’t additional element within the interview.
Requested about Hassan’s gear, Harila mentioned that he didn’t put on a down swimsuit and he didn’t have gloves, nor did he have oxygen. “We didn’t see any signal of both a masks or oxygen tank,” she mentioned.
In the meantime, an investigation has been launched into Hassan’s loss of life, mentioned Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Pakistan Alpine Membership, a sports activities group that additionally serves because the governing physique for mountaineering in Pakistan. The investigation is being carried out by officers within the Gilgit-Baltistan area which has jurisdiction over K2, mentioned Haidri.
Anwar Syed, the top of Lela Peak Expedition, the corporate dealing with Harila’s expedition, mentioned Hassan died about 150 meters (490 toes) beneath the summit. He mentioned a number of folks tried to assist, offering oxygen and heat, to no avail.
Syed mentioned that due to the bottleneck’s harmful situations, it will not be potential to retrieve Hassan’s physique and hand it to the household. He mentioned his firm gave cash to Hassan’s household and would proceed to assist, however didn’t elaborate.
Requested about Hassan’s obvious lack of kit, Syed mentioned the expedition firm pays cash to porters to purchase gear, and that Hassan was paid the agreed upon quantity.
Steindl’s fellow climber, Flaemig, alleged in an interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Customary that Hassan had no high-altitude expertise. “He wasn’t geared up correctly. He didn’t have expertise. He was a base camp porter and for the primary time was picked to be a high-altitude porter. He wasn’t certified for this,” he mentioned.
Steindl visited Hassan’s household and arrange a crowd-funding marketing campaign. After three days, donations reached greater than 114,000 euros ($125,000) Saturday.
“I noticed the struggling of the household,” Steindl informed AP. “The widow informed me that her husband did all this in order that his kids would have an opportunity in life, in order that they might go to highschool.”
___
Grieshaber reported from Berlin.