Natural disaster: Porter goes missing as avalanche hits climbers

GILGIT:

A Pakistani high altitude porter went missing while a Japanese and a Chinese climber sustained serious injuries when an avalanche hit a climbing expedition, scaling Broad Peak in the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) region.

Residents said the avalanche ripped through the lower section of the base camp-1 of Broad Peak about 11am on Monday.

The peak is the 12th highest mountain in the world with an elevation of 8,051m above the sea level, located in the Karakoram mountain range.

The climbers were part of an 18-member expedition that included climbers from India, China, New Zealand and Japan, said a member of the tour operating company. “The bad weather in the mountain range has prevented search and rescue operation,” he added.

According to District Ghanche’s Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Tariq, cloudy and rainy weather has been persisting in the valley for the past six days, which has triggered flash floods.  Pakistan Meteorological Department had issued an advisory warning of rising temperatures and enhancing rate of melting of glaciers.

Samina Baig injured

Meanwhile, Pakistani mountaineer Samina Baig was forced to call off her bid to summit the second highest mountain in the world, K-2, after suffering an injury, reported Express News.

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

Having climbed to base camp-1 of K-2 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.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2015.