Rescue ongoing to find survivors of K2 avalanche

Rescue efforts resumed today to find at least nine climbers, including an Irish man, feared dead on K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, after an avalanche cut ropes used to cross a treacherous wall of ice, officials said.

Several other mountaineers were missing, prompting a desperate rescue effort on the peak in northern Pakistan, which is regarded as more dangerous to climb than Mount Everest.

Irish engineer Gerard McDonnell was believed to be among the climbers who are missing.

A total of 22 people, mostly foreigners, in eight different groups scaled K2’s summit on Friday, said Nazir Sabir of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.

On Friday, Mr McDonnell, from Kilcorney, Co Limerick, became the first Irish man to reach the summit of the mountain on the Pakistani-Chinese border - considered the most dangerous in the world.

Mr Sabir said as the climbers made their way down, an avalanche carried away ropes fixed 1,148 feet below the peak, sweeping some climbers to their deaths and stranding others at a height where they would probably succumb to exposure.

Accounts varied on the number of dead and how they died.

Mr Sabir said nine people died in the avalanche. Included in that number, were two rescuers – a Nepalese sherpa and a Pakistani porter – who survivors said fell to their death.

Mohammed Akram, vice president of the Adventure Foundation of Pakistan, said one rescue team dispatched Sunday had reached a Dutchman and an Italian suffering from frostbite and were helping them down towards a camp at an altitude of 21,325 feet.

He said helicopter crews spotted survivors, but could not pluck them to safety because the air is too thin for them to operate so high.

The fixed rope lines were strung across a point on the mountain known as The Bottleneck.

Chris Warner, an American who climbed K2 last year, said it was the deadliest place on the mountain, the fall from there down the south face is some 9,000 feet.

“You can see how for people who were exhausted, it would have been nearly impossible for them to descend without the ropes,” said Mr Warner.

He said hope was fading for anyone still alive and separated from their group.

“Once their hands and feet are frozen, they really are unable to move on their own power, and it takes other people to carry them down,” he said.

At 28,250 feet, K2 stands about 785 feet below Mount Everest, but is a “phenomenally dangerous mountain,” said Alan Arnett, who climbed a nearby peak with at least one of the missing climbers.

Compared with Everest, “it’s more technical, it’s steeper, the weather is more intense,” he said.

The toll from the avalanche was the highest from a single incident on K2 since at least 1995, when seven climbers died after being caught in a fierce storm.

About 280 people have climbed K2 since 1954, when it was first conquered by Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedell.

Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them occurring during the descent.

Fearing the worst, Mr McDonnell’s family last night issued a statement expressing their pride in his achievement while President Mary McAleese and Sports Minister Martin Cullen also paid tributes.