K2 Summer 2022: Nanga Rescue Update

The two deaths are now confirmed and identified. Meanwhile, poor weather hampers the rescue of the two stranded climbers on Nanga Parbat.

Fazal Ali and Shehroze Kashif were last reported trying to descend from Camp 3 on NP, this is a dangerous section where rappelling is required. A helicopter left Skardu at 9:00 am Wednesday, July 6, but low clouds prevented the searchers from seeing the mountain, much less the climbers. They abandoned the search and will try tomorrow, hopefully, if the weather clears. This will make these second nights the two Pakistanis have spent exposed high on the peak. Everest Chronicle has a good video shot from inside the helicopter showing the obscured mountainside.

Broad Peak – One death, No Summits

The dead climber on Broad Peak is Pakastani Shareef Sadpara. He was characterized as an experienced climber with a summit on K2 in 2021. Furtenbach Adventures made this post:

Broad Peak update: Everyone from our team is safely down after yesterday’s summit push. There is still difficult and limited communication but what we know so far is that our team started from C3 in the night, also fixing the rope to the summit ridge. They were followed by climbers from other teams. Shortly before the summit a following Pakistani climber from a different team fell through a snow cornice on the summit ridge down to the Chinese side. That event halted the summit push for everyone for obvious reasons.

Gasherbrum I – One Death

As previously reported, Iman Karim is said to have died after falling into a crevasse. Details are still unclear, but Parmir Times reported, “… he had gone on a solo trek from the basecamp when the accident happened. Iman Karim was part of an expedition along with noted mountaineer Sarbaz Khan and Rana Javed.”

Comms Problems

Note that all teams are struggling with communications. The mobile 4G link is sporadic, and even the normally reliable satellite systems are spotty, suggesting there are local issues at play. This lack of reliable communication is impacting all the team’s planning ability and communication with much-needed weather forecasts.

Climb On!

Alan

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