In this undated photo provide by a Pakistani tour operating company 'Higher Ground Expeditions' shows Austrian mountaineer Christian Huber posing for a photograph, in Hunza, Pakistan. Huber, one of a three-man mountaineering expedition has died in an avalanche on a more than 7,000-meter (7,658-yard) high peak in northern Pakistan, officials said Saturday, on Saturday, June 30, 2018. (Higher Ground Expeditions via AP)
The avalanche struck the men 5,900 metres up Ultar Sar mountain, located in Pakistan's northern Hunza valley
"Austrian mountaineer Christian Huber was killed," local Hunza police official Wajid Karim told AFP.
He named the injured mountaineers as British national Bruce Normand and Timothy Miller, whose nationality was not immediately known.
Search called off for missing Polish mountaineer on Nanga Parbat
Karim said efforts were underway to bring Huber's body and the injured mountaineers back to Islamabad.
An army helicopter could not carry out a rescue operation due to bad weather on the 7,388 metres high Ultar Sar, but a ground team were making their way up to the scene.
A local administration official who asked not to be named confirmed the incident and casualties.
Northern Pakistan is a magnet for mountaineers and is home to some of the tallest mountains in the world, including K2 -- at 8,611 metres, the world's second highest peak, but often deemed a more challenging climb than the highest, Mount Everest.
Nestled between the western end of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush mountains and the Karakoram range, Gilgit-Baltistan houses 18 of the world's 50 highest peaks.
It is also home to three of the world's seven longest glaciers outside the polar regions. Hundreds of its mountains have never been climbed.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ