Climber’s family travel to Pakistan for meeting with expedition leader

THE brother and girlfriend of the Limerick climber confirmed dead in the Himalayas are preparing to travel to the area to meet the leader of the ill-fated expedition.

Gerard “Ger” McDonnell, 37, was among 11 people from several teams killed on Saturday while descending the world’s second-highest mountain.

On Friday, Mr McDonnell, from Kilcornan, Co Limerick, became the first Irish person to reach the summit of the 8,611-metre K2 mountain on the Pakistani-Chinese border — considered the most dangerous in the world.