GILGIT: Ten local and foreign climbers successfully completed the summit of the Spantik Peak (7,027m) between Shigar and Nagar districts.

It was the last expedition of this summer season.

The expedition team had started their summit from the Shigar side of the mountain, also called the Golden Peak, on Friday evening.

The climbers Stuart James, Peter Upton and David Willis from Australia; Maria Pujadas from Spain; David Lavie from France; and Mirza Ali, Ahmed Baig, Rizwan Dad, Waqar Ali and Zaman Karim from Pakistan reached the summit at 10:40am on Sunday, according to Mahaboob Ali of Karakoram Expedi­tions, which organised the summit.

After the successful summit, the climbers have completed the descent to the base camp.

Earlier on August 10, four Pakistani climbers completed the summit of Spantik Peak.

The climbers, part of the two expedition groups, included Asad Ali Memon from Sindh, Muhammad Amin from Hushe valley of Gilgit-Baltistan, Farooq Ahmed from Islamabad and Jawahir Ali from Arandu, Shigar.

During this climbing season, three Japanese climbers lost their lives during attempt to scale the peak.

One of the climbers died after falling in a crevasse while descending the mountain.

A week after his death, some local climbers and high-altitude porters from the Hoper Valley of Nagar district managed to retrieve and hand over his body to his colleagues.

In June, two other Japanese climbers who went missing during their attempt to summit Spantik Peak were found dead at camp 1.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024