Tragedy in the 'death zone'

Published on Sunday 3 August 2008 22:25

NINE climbers were feared dead on K2 in Pakistan last night, after the worst day for mountaineering on the world's second-highest peak.

Expedition leaders warned the death toll could rise, after reports of an ice avalanche striking people on their descent from the 28,250ft summit.

Confirmed dead included three South Koreans, two Nepalese, along with Serbian, Norwegian, Dutch and French climbers.

Previously, the deadliest day in the history of K2 was on 13 August, 1995, when six people fell or disappeared during a storm, including Alison Hargreaves, from Spean Bridge near Fort William, whose body was never recovered.

She became the first woman to scale Everest unsupported by oxygen or Sherpas.

But commentators claimed that, far from being an action heroine, Hargreaves had been irresponsible towards her children, Tom and Kate, and their father, Jim Ballard.

Friday's tragedy struck without warning: the sky was clear and there were no forecasts of bad weather when the accident happened, according to one tour operator, Asghar Ali, who reported all members of his expedition were accounted for.

The avalanche was triggered by a chunk which broke off an ice pillar and tore away fixed ropes from a perilously steep gully known as the Bottleneck.

The ice fall left about a dozen climbers stranded at 26,902ft, an altitude known as the "death zone" because bodies start to degenerate because of the lack of oxygen. A few were either seen or reported to have made their way back to camps, still high on the mountain.

The seven surviving members of the Korean team managed to descend to camps lower down.

The Serbians say they buried their team member as it was impossible to bring his body back.

Unconfirmed reports said one Pakistani guide had died and several other foreign and local climbers were also unaccounted for.

One of the climbers reported missing is Gerard McDonnell, 37, from County Limerick in Ireland, the first Irish person to reach the mountain's summit.

K2, in northern Pakistan, near the border with China, is regarded as more difficult to climb than Mount Everest.

A steep pyramid of rock and ice at the head of a glacial valley, the renowned Italian climber Reinhold Messner called K2 "the mountain of mountains". More than 70 climbers have lost their lives there. Though K2 is not the deadliest in terms of number of fatalities, statistics show the chances of dying making a descent after summitting are far greater than for other peaks.

Rescue efforts were gathering pace last night. A team of climbers had begun ascending with supplies, while helicopters were being organised to bring injured climbers down.

A spotter plane was on stand-by, waiting for clouds to clear, before flying over the flanks of K2 to look for those still missing.

Ghulam Mohammad, owner of Blue Sky Travels and Tours, who was helping to organise the Korean team's expedition, said: "They were returning from the summit when an avalanche at the Bottleneck hit them. Our liaison officer at the Base Camp confirmed the death of five."

A Serbian climber, named as Dren Mandic on mountaineering websites, fell to his death while ascending earlier on Friday and a Pakistani sherpa is also believed to have died.

Brigadier Mohammad Akram, vice-president of Pakistan's Adventure Foundation, said: "We don't have names of dead climbers but it has been confirmed that one Dutch, one Norwegian and one French are in the tally of dead."

A Dutch expedition said on its website, www.noritk2.nl, that three of its team were descending from Camp Three, at about 24,000ft. Two of them were suffering from frostbite.

But it said there was no information about a French climber, Hugues d'Aubarede, or another mountaineer identified only as Karim.

Body of the record breaking climber was never found

ALISON Hargreaves became the first woman to scale Mount Everest unassisted.

She also climbed all the great north faces of the Alps solo in a single season – a first for any climber. This feat included climbing the famously difficult north face of the Eiger. She also climbed Ama Dablam (6,812m) in Nepal.

In 1995, she intended to climb the three highest mountains in the world – Mount Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga – unaided.

On 13 May, 1995 she reached the summit of Everest without the aid of Sherpas or bottled oxygen.

She left the UK again in June to join an American team to climb K2, the world's second-highest mountain, in Pakistan.

K2 is regarded as a significantly more difficult and dangerous climb than Everest.

By 13 August, the US team and Hargreaves had joined forces with a New Zealand and Canadian team at Camp 4, around 7,600m above sea level, and at least 12 hours from the summit.

Later that day, having joined with a Spanish team above Camp 4, New Zealander Peter Hillary (son of Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary) decided to turn back, noting that the weather that had been fine for the previous four days appeared to be changing.

At 6:45pm, in fine conditions, Hargreaves and the rest of the team reached the summit.

All, however, died in a violent storm while returning. Hargreaves's body was never found.

The climbing community and press had questioned the ethics of a mother engaging in such a dangerous sport.

To commemorate the life of his wife, Alison's husband took their two children to K2 to stand in the shadow of the mountain.