Gilgit Baltistan

Injury forces Samina Baig to call off K-2 summit bid

A chunk of ice and rock hit her right forearm below camp-1 which severely injured her.

Web Desk July 18, 2015

Mountaineering duo Samina Baig and Mirza Ali are currently trying to scale K-2. PHOTO: EXPRESS

Mountaineer Samina Baig was forced to call of her bid to summit the second highest mountain in the world, K-2, after suffering an injury while climbing, Express News reported.

Samina, who was the first Pakistani woman to scale Mount Everest, was climbing up K-2 on a second rotation to acclimatise to conditions at high altitude ahead of a summit attempt.

Having climbed to camp-1 on Friday, she complained of severe pain on the left side of her neck, extending to the shoulder, her brother Mirza Ali wrote in a post on Facebook. Instead of subsiding, the pain increased the next morning, but the group decided to push on towards camp-2. Ali said that Samina has complained of the pain in the past as well, with treatment doing little to help.

Samina Baig climbing on K-2. PHOTO: COURTESY MIRZA ALI

While pushing on from camp-1, Samina continued to complain of pain which prevented her from climbing up. Hence, the group decided to go back down to base camp instead of climbing up to camp-2.

Climbing down below camp-1, Ali said that a chunk of ice and rock hit her forearm. “Doctor is not sure if it's fracture or just bruises but it's swollen.”

The group, however, managed to get back to base camp for doctors to have a better look at the injuries and to treat the arm.

Samina Baig gets treatment for her injured right forearm at K-2 base camp. PHOTO: COURTESY MIRZA ALI

"Having sever neck pain for few days and forearm injury, we sadly called off our #Warid k2 expedition 2015. We thank all of you for your prayers and good wishes,” Ali wrote in the conclusion of his post.

At camp-1. PHOTO: COURTESY MIRZA ALI

Earlier on Saturday, Ali had tweeted a picture of the brother and sister duo along with fellow climbers Musa and Jalal, wishing everyone happy Eidul Fitr.

#Saminabaig,myself,Mussa Bhai & jalal wish every one a very happy Eid Mubarak frm K2 base camp #standhigh #standfirm pic.twitter.com/mTIq21ieIj
— Mirza Ali (@Mirza_climb) July 18, 2015

Last week, Samina and Ali had climbed to camp-1 with a view to head on to camp-2. But heavy snow on the mountain forced them to go downwards instead of moving up.

COMMENTS (1)

iAdvise! | 9 years ago | Reply It was a good decision. Pushing your luck in a compromised situation, specially on K2, the Killer Mountain, is never wise. If anything would have happened, which happens on K2 all the time, you and your team would have never forgiven yourself for not discontinuing. Also a compromised team member become heavy burden and drag the whole team down, if not becoming the sole reason to killing them. Which have happened half of the time before. I also see she looks tired and need to go back down for physical fitness food & exercises that European are made to do daily, young Sherpas don't do that, I know. But all other who were born in city and raise on processed food, who took modern medicine must do.

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