Rescue expedition on ‘Killer Mountain’ saves French climber

A French and a Polish mountaineer went scaling one of the toughest Pakistani peak in winter of Nanga Parbat nicknamed the ‘killer mountain’. However, their mission went awry and they got stranded at the top after which a rescue mission was launched.

Elisabeth Revol was rescued on Sunday by an elite group of Polish climbers who scaled part of the 26,660 feet mountain in darkness overnight Saturday and Sunday to reach her. Sadly, they were unable to reach Polish national Tomek Mackiewicz and had to make the ‘terrible and painful’ decision to leave him behind.

The French-Polish duo got into trouble on Thursday after making a late descent to a camp. They got trapped on the side of the mountain for the night without a tent in freezing temperatures and high winds.

Miraculously the pair was spotted by fellow mountaineers using binoculars. They spotted Revol attempting to climb down while Machkiewicz appeared to be crawling due to frostbite.

The team of expert Polish climbers sought help from Pakistan military and launched the rescue attempt on Saturday afternoon, flying from the base camp of K2. The team ascended 1,200 meters in complete darkness along a dangerous route without a fixed rope.

After being rescued, Revol was flown to Islamabad and hospitalized with reports of ‘severe frostbite on her hands and feet’.

She flew back to France on Tuesday but vowed to come back to Pakistan.

“Good bye Pakistan. I will come again to climb mountains of Pakistan but not Nanga Parbat,” Revol said in a departure message shared by the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

“Thanks to all official(s) including Pakistan Army, Alpine Club of Pakistan and local authorities,” she was quoted as saying in the message.

“Revol left Pakistan at 3:00 am local time on Monday night with an aim to come back soon,” Karrar Haidri, a spokesperson for Alpine Club of Pakistan, adding that she had flown to her home country.

Nanga Parbat, in northern Pakistan, is the world’s ninth-highest mountain at 26,660 feet.

It earned the nickname “killer mountain” after more than 30 climbers died trying to climb it before the first successful summit in 1953.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=55977

Posted by fatimaarshad on Jan 31 2018. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.