Pakistan Investigates Claims That Porter Was Left to Die During Norwegian Climber’s K2 Record Quest

ISLAMABAD (AP) — 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 stated 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.

Harila rejected any accountability for the loss of life of the porter, Mohammed Hassan, a 27-year-old father of three who slipped and fell off a slender path in a very harmful space of K2 often called the bottleneck. In an Instagram put up 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 tough climate situations, however stated they reconstructed the occasions later by reviewing drone footage.

The footage confirmed dozens of climbers passing a gravely injured Hassan as a substitute of coming to his rescue, Steindl advised The Related Press on Saturday. He alleged that the porter may have been saved if the opposite climbers, together with Harila and her crew, 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 pieces would have been finished to save lots of them,” Steindl stated. “Everybody would have needed to flip again to convey the injured individual again right down to the valley.”

Harila advised 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 stated that after about an hour, her crew was capable of pull him again onto the path.

Sooner or later, she and one other individual from her crew determined to proceed to the highest whereas one other crew member stayed with Hassan, giving him heat water and oxygen from his personal masks, the climber stated.

Harila stated she determined to proceed transferring towards the summit as a result of her ahead fixing crew additionally bumped into difficulties which she didn’t additional element within the interview.

Requested about Hassan’s gear, Harila stated 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 stated.

In the meantime, an investigation has been launched into Hassan’s loss of life, stated 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 performed by officers within the Gilgit-Baltistan area which has jurisdiction over K2, stated Haidri.

Anwar Syed, the top of Lela Peak Expedition, the corporate dealing with Harila’s expedition, stated Hassan died about 150 meters (490 toes) beneath the summit. He stated a number of folks tried to assist, offering oxygen and heat, to no avail.

Syed stated that due to the bottleneck’s harmful situations, it will not be attainable to retrieve Hassan’s physique and hand it to the household. He stated 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 stated 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 Normal 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 stated.

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 advised AP. “The widow advised me that her husband did all this in order that his youngsters would have an opportunity in life, in order that they may go to high school.”

Grieshaber reported from Berlin.

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