GILGIT: An Austrian climber was killed while another climber and their local guide were seriously injured when they were hit by an avalanche while attempting to climb an unexplored and unclimbed peak in the Shimshal valley of Hunza on Thursday.

According to officials, Feineler Elias and Kerber Romona of Austria with local guide Shah Dualat had started climbing an unnamed peak in Shimshal Valley at 6am on Thursday.

On their way up, they were hit by an avalanche near the base camp at an attitude of around 5,000 meters at 9:30am.

The avalanche left Mr Elias dead and Ms Romona and Mr Dualat critically injured.

Four local porters were also with the Austrian climbers, who returned to Shimshal village carrying goods of the climbers.

Local volunteers have started a rescue operation and the injured have been shifted to the base camp of the peak.

Meanwhile, the tour operator has requested the Army Aviation to send helicopters to rescue the injured climbers. The helicopters will depart on Friday (today’s) morning if weather permits.

On Sept 28, the two Austrian mountaineers had gone for trekking Gojaraf in Shimshal and were supposed to come back on Oct 4. However, the schedule was changed due to bad weather and the climbers, with their local guide, started climbing the peak on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2022