Sport Sherpa left behind
Death drama on K2 – 70 climbers walked past a dying man
Status: 11.08.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Climbers ignore dying porters
As dozens of alpinists scale K2, a Pakistani porter lies dying. Instead of doing everything to save the man, the climbers simply ignore him. Now there is a storm of indignation – and a Norwegian world record holder is being criticized.
On K2, the second highest mountain in the world, a mountain porter is caught in an avalanche. But instead of helping the seriously injured, other mountaineers continue their tour. The outrage after the death drama is great. Now new details are coming to light.
In Pakistan, witnesses are to be heard after the death of a mountain porter on K2. “The most important statement would be that of the other carrier who attached the rope to the dead carrier and saw him fall,” said Rahat Karim Baig, a member of a commission of inquiry, the German Press Agency on Thursday.
About two weeks ago, the Pakistani mountain porter Mohammed Hassan fell on the Asian eight-thousander K2 and finally died. His death sparked an outcry after videos circulated showing him alive at the scene.
“It is unfortunate that no one stopped to help the dying man,” Abu Zafar Sadiq, president of the Pakistani Alpine Club, told the German Press Agency. Several avalanches were triggered on the day of the accident at a bottleneck on K2, the most difficult and deadliest point before the summit. “Some of the climbers were hit by the avalanches, but luckily no one was swept away,” Sadiq continued. “Whatever the circumstances, someone should have helped the poor guy.”
Mountaineer raises serious allegations
A mountaineer from Tyrol and a German cameraman were also on K2 on the day of the accident, as the Austrian newspaper “Der Standard” reported. From the incident they got so initially nothing. “He died miserably there. It would only have taken three or four people to bring him down,” the newspaper quoted Tyrolean mountaineer Wilhelm Steindl as saying.
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According to the drone recordings made by his cameraman, around 70 climbers passed the dying man at the narrow point at around 8,300 meters, Steindl told the German Press Agency on Thursday. “Maybe they had tunnel vision.” He could not assess how the passers-by would have perceived the situation. The will of many mountaineers not to be stopped on the way to the second highest peak on earth is illustrated by their behavior towards the only helper, said Steindl.
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According to Steindl, the mountaineer who was helping had previously heaved the fallen Pakistani mountain porter Mohammed Hassan back several meters on the rope into the track. “He was criticized for creating a traffic jam,” said Steindl. Based on witness statements and drone footage, it can be reconstructed that the carrier crashed at around 2:30 a.m. on July 27 and probably died between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. “For a paying customer from the west, a rescue operation would have been launched in any case.”
Fatal accidents occur again and again in the Pakistani mountains and the neighboring countries in the Himalayas. The 8611 meter high K2 in Pakistan is the second highest mountain on earth and is considered extremely difficult. Reasons include the steep route and the risk of avalanches.
