A group of climbers from Nepal on Saturday became the first ever to summit K2 during winter months. On the same day, a Spanish mountaineer fell to his death from the peak.
Over the last few weeks, many climbers have been competing to reach the peak of the world’s second highest mountain.
“WE DID IT,” tweeted Seven Summit Treks, a trekking company which was leading one of the expeditions.
“The Karakorum’s ‘Savage Mountain’ been summited in most dangerous season: winter. Nepalese climbers finally reached the summit of Mt K2 this afternoon at 17:00 local time”, it added.
But lower down the mountain, climbers were mourning the death of Sergi Mingote – a Spanish climber. The Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez described him as a “great sportsman” on Twitter.
“He wanted to keep on making history… and a tragic accident ended his life”, he added.
Also read: Nepal to reopen Everest to climbers despite coronavirus case rise
According to reports, the climber fell to his death while going down to Base Camp after 4 PM local time.
Due to poor weather conditions, the body has not been evacuated. The evacuation is most likely to take place on Sunday morning.
“Savage Mountain” is named after the conditions there. Winds can blow at over 200 kilometres per hour, with temperatures dropping to minus 60 degrees Celsius.
Also read: Ten climbers killed in Iran due to heavy snowfall, many still missing
No team had been able to reach a height of more than 7,650 metres until Saturday when the climbers touched 8,000 metres.
The K2 lies in the Karakoram range. The 10 climbers from Nepal were spread across different teams, but came up with a new group to achieve the feat in Nepal’s name.
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