Helicopters called in for K2 rescue
Rescue helicopters were flown in to K2 today after an avalanche left at least nine climbers feared dead.
The two helicopters hope to find Italian climber Marco Confortola who is suffering from serious frostbite and also evacuate four others who returned to a base camp on the world’s second-highest mountain.
It is believed the body of Limerick man Gerard McDonnell will not be recovered from K2.
President Mary McAleese has led tributes to the Mr McDonnell.
Members of Mr McDonnell's family may fly to Islamabad in the coming days.
K2 is regarded by mountaineers as more challenging to conquer than Everest, the world’s highest peak.
The feared death toll is the highest from a single incident on K2 since at least 1995, when seven died after being caught in a storm.
A total of 22 people in eight different groups reached K2’s summit on Friday, said Nazir Sabir of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. It remained unclear how many climbers were still on the mountain.
As the mountaineers made their way down, the avalanche cut ropes used to cross a treacherous wall of ice around 1,100 feet below the 28,250-foot summit, sweeping some climbers to their deaths and stranding others at a height where they would likely be killed by exposure, Sabir said.
Accounts varied on the number of dead and how they died. But Sabir said nine people died in the avalanche. Included in that number, were two rescuers who survivors said fell to their death.
Mohammed Akram, vice president of the Adventure Foundation of Pakistan, a non-profit organisation, said one rescue team had reached a Dutchman and an Italian suffering from frostbite and were helping them down toward a camp at around 21,000 feet.
He said helicopter crews spotted survivors, but could not pluck them to safety because the air was too thin for them to operate so high.
The fixed rope lines were strung across a point on the mountain known as “The Bottleneck.” Chris Warner, an American who climbed K2 last year, said it was the deadliest place on the mountain, the fall from there down the south face is some 9,000 feet.
“You can see how for people who were exhausted, it would have been nearly impossible for them to descend without the ropes,” said Warner.
He said hope was fading for anyone still alive and separated from their group.
“Once their hands and feet are frozen, they really are unable to move on their own power, and it takes other people to carry them down,” he said.
About 280 people have climbed K2 since 1954, when it was first conquered by Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedell. Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them during the descent.
