Two Russian climbers were critically injured and another is missing after they were hit by an avalanche on a Gilgit Baltistan mountain, the South Asian country’s climbing association said Monday.
An all-Russian team of five climbers was trying to retrieve the body of a compatriot who fell to his death last year on the 7,925-metre (26,000-feet) Gasherbrum IV.
They were hit by the avalanche at about 6,000 metres (19,685 feet) on Saturday.
Two of the climbers were able to make it to base camp the same day but two members remained on the mountain critically injured and the team leader was missing.
“The condition of the injured is critical and there is little hope that they will survive beyond the next day,” Karar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told AFP on Monday.
A rescue team comprising one of the Russians who made it down the mountain and four Pakistani high-altitude porters was to be dropped by helicopter at base camp, Akhtar Shigri, a police official in the mountain resort town of Skardu, told AFP.
“Today, an army helicopter left Skardu airbase for Gasherbrum IV to rescue the Russian climbers who met an avalanche,” Shigri said.
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“Today, the weather is clear. And we hope they will be rescued today,” he said.
Gasherbrum IV is the world’s 17th tallest peak and part of the Karakoram Range, home to the mighty K2, the second tallest peak after Mount Everest.
Five foreign climbers and at least two Pakistanis have died on the country’s mountains during the busy summer climbing season this year.
