ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani rescue team is continuing the search for climbers who went missing earlier this week after attempting to summit Broad Peak, state media reported on Saturday, after the bodies of three climbers were recovered a day earlier.
A 10-member team of climbers lost contact with their base camp on Thursday after an avalanche struck Broad Peak while they were attempting to scale the mountain, said Karrar Haidri, vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
Baltistan Commissioner Kamal Khan said on Friday that the rescue team had identified the bodies of three climbers, Nadhira Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy from Oman, Sarah Mallory from the US and Pur Bahadur Gurung from Nepal. Khan said a three-member civilian rescue team comprising renowned mountaineer Sirbaz Khan was leading the search for the mountaineers. Pakistan Army Aviation helicopters had also been deployed to help the team in its search mission.
“Efforts are continuing to locate the seven remaining missing mountaineers from the team of 10 caught in the avalanche,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
Among those missing is Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, 43, who set a record for the fastest ascent of the world’s 14 highest mountains, a feat chronicled in the 2021 Netflix documentary “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible.”
Regional police said the rescue operation was suspended on Friday night because of weather conditions. The area in which the search is taking place is “remote and difficult,” said Sajid Hussain, deputy director of the tourism department in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Moving Mountains, a travel company based in Pakistan, announced late last month that the expedition team was on its way to the small town of Askole and wished them a safe journey climbing Broad Peak.
Broad Peak, at 8,047 meters (26,401 feet), is the world’s 12th-highest mountain. It lies in Pakistan’s Karakoram range, home to five of the world’s 14 peaks above 8,000 meters, attracting climbers from around the globe.
Accidents are common during climbing expeditions in northern Pakistan because of avalanches and rapidly changing weather.
