“A rescue attempt was made with a helicopter, but it was unable to land,” Shigar district deputy commissioner Wali Ullah Falahi told AFP on Sunday. The two men were spotted, but did not move. They have not yet been declared dead.
The two experienced mountaineers Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima had attempted to climb the rugged west face of the second highest mountain in the world at 8,611 meters. The two relied on a climbing style that focuses on speed and uses only a few fixed ropes. On Saturday they fell at a height of 7,500 meters, said the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP), a mountaineering and sport climbing association.
Cancellation of helicopter rescue
The altitude and the steep slope forced the rescue helicopter to abort its landing, said Japanese sporting goods manufacturer Ishii Sports, which is sponsoring the two climbers. “The pilot said the two men were visible, but their status was unclear,” it continued. “We are currently checking how we can rescue them.”
Rescue attempts are extremely risky even on the southeast ridge, which most climbers use to reach the K2 summit. The west face is steeper and has only been successfully climbed once, by a Russian team in 2007.
Both award-winning mountaineers
According to ACP, Hiraide and Nakajima had carefully planned and trained for their expedition. Both are athletes who have received major mountaineering awards on several occasions, it said.
This summer, three other Japanese climbers have already died in Pakistan – all on the 7,027-meter-high Mount Spantik, which, like K2, is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region. Pakistan is home to five of the world’s 14 mountains that are more than 8,000 meters high. K2 is considered more difficult to climb than Mount Everest.
