GILGIT: A Polish climber lost his life due to acute altitude sickness while a 45-year-old Pakistani mountaineer was stranded at camp 4 as a result of snow blindness as they attempted to summit Nanga Parbat, which is over 8,126m-tall, on Sunday evening.

The Alpine Club of Pak­istan said Polish national Pawel Tomasz Kopec passed away on Nanga Parbat from “acute altitude sickness at a height of 7,400 metres”. Seven members of the Polish expedition team were attempting to climb the peak on Sunday.

Diamer Deputy Commi­ssioner Arif told Dawn that the fellows of the Polish expedition team continued their ascend, however. He said a plan to bring back the body from the peak will be chalked up after the return of the Polish team.

Meanwhile, tour operator of the expedition Ghulam Muhammad told Dawn that Pakistani climber Asif Bhatti from Lahore, who teaches at a university in Islamabad, was a part of the five-member expedition team. The other team members had aban­doned the mission and returned to the base camp from camp 1.

Asif Bhatti stuck at Camp 4 due to ‘snow blindness’; rescue plan to be finalised today

However, Mr Bhatti joined a foreign expedition team and started the summit push on Sunday. He was stranded at camp 4, an altitude of 7,500 metres, due the snow blindness.

Mr Bhatti communicated with Mirza Ali, the CEO of Karakorum Expeditions, who is currently at the base camp through radio and informed him about the issue and sought help.

He said he was waiting for the foreign climbers to come back from the top and would join them during the descent as he was “physically fit”. According to the tour operator, the fellow climbers returned to the base camp without bringing Mr Bhatti along. He added some Pakistani and foreign climbers on Monday reached the top of the peak and Mr Bhatti may accompany them during the descent.

The tour operator said the climber was in a stable condition and the only issue he faced was that of snow blindness which made it impossible for him to move alone.

An official of the Karakoram Expedition told Dawn that the “climbers who summited Nanga Parbat on Sunday are ready to rescue Mr Bhatti” and that help has also been sought from the army to rescue him through a helicopter.

The official said the helicopter cannot fly above the altitude of 8,000 metres, but they will drop the rescue team at the maximum altitude from where they will climb towards camp 4 to bring down Mr Bhatti. The members of the rescue team would decide about the rescue operation on Tuesday morning.

Alpine Club of Pakistan Secretary Karrar Haidri said Mr Bhatti, the 45-year-old mountaineer from Lahore, had also attempted to scale Broad Peak last year but could not succeed. Mr Haidri said help has been sought from the Army Aviation to provide helicopters for his rescue.

According to mountaineer Shehroze Kashif, Mirza Ali from Kara­ko­rum Expeditions is all prepared to rescue him, but they’re waiting for a helicopter to drop off the climbers who fixed the ropes earlier. “These climbers, Jalal, and Ahmed Baig, just returned from reaching the summit a few days ago, and now they’re ready for this rescue mission.”

He expressed the wish to join rescue efforts and said: “I can understand and imagine where Asif might be stuck because Fazal and I were also stuck at the same point. I want to join the rescue mission, but it might be too late, and we have little time.”

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023