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Sunday, December 22, 2024  
19 Jumada Al-Akhirah 1446  

Mountaineer denies allegation of climbing over Pakistani porter’s body

'My team did everything they could to save Hassan but the conditions were too vulnerable,' says climber
Muhammad Hassan fell off a sheer edge at a height of about 8,200 meters. Screengrab via Instagram/8k Expeditions
Muhammad Hassan fell off a sheer edge at a height of about 8,200 meters. Screengrab via Instagram/8k Expeditions

A mountaineer rejected the claims that her team climbed over the dying Pakistani porter to reach the summit of K2 to become the world’s fastest climber, The Guardian reported.

A few days ago images and videos emerged of climbers clambering past Muhammad Hassan who fell off a sheer edge at a height of about 8,200 metres.

Kristin Harila, a team leader of climbers, told the Telegraph that her team “did everything” they could to save Hassan but the conditions were “too vulnerable” to move him.

Austrian mountaineers Wilhelm Steindl and Philip Flamig, who were also on K2 on the day, said the footage they had recorded with a drone was depicting climbers walking over Hassan’s body instead of rescuing him.

Flamig told Austria’s Standard newspaper, “He was being treated by one person and others were pushing towards the summit, there was no organised rescue system, although there were mountain guides available on the site.”

Steindl added: “Hassan was treated like a second-class human being.”

He visited Porter’s family and revealed that Hassan doing the job of rope fixer without any experience to pay his diabetic mother’s medical bills.

Meanwhile, Harila denied the allegations on Thursday and claimed that her team did everything to save Hassan. “It is not true that we have done nothing. We tried to lift him back up for an hour and a half and my cameraman was looking after him for another hour, and we did not leave him alone at any point.”

“He fell on what is probably the most dangerous site of the mountain where the chances of carrying someone off were limited by narrow trail and poor snow conditions,” she added.

Harila said that Hassan was not wearing either gloves or a jacket and didn’t appear to have been given oxygen.

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