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Record-breaking mountaineer rejects charges of leaving dying porter behind to summit K2

Norway's Kristin Harila has said her team did everything they could to save Pakistan's Mohammed Hassan

Published: Fri 11 Aug 2023, 4:12 PM

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This picture taken in July 2023 shows a view of K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, from its base camp in the Karakoram range of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. (AFP)

This picture taken in July 2023 shows a view of K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, from its base camp in the Karakoram range of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan. (AFP)

Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila, who has become the fastest climber to scale all 14 peaks above 8,000 metres, has denied allegations that she and her team climbed over a dying porter to reach the K2 summit in Pakistan, according to media reports.

Harila’s statement comes after a video surfaced on the internet that appeared to show climbers walking past Pakistan’s Mohammed Hassan, 27, who got fatally injured after falling off the edge of the mountain.

Harila has said that her team did everything they could to save Hassan, who she said was from another team, and that he was not left alone, reported The Telegraph.

“It is simply not true to say that we did nothing to help him. We tried to lift him back up for an hour and a half and my cameraman stayed on for another hour to look after him. At no point was he left alone,” Harila was quoted as saying.

“Given the conditions, it is hard to see how he could have been saved. He fell on what is probably the most dangerous part of the mountain where the chances of carrying someone off were limited by the narrow trail and poor snow conditions,” she added. “We did all we could for him,” Harila insisted.

The incident reportedly took place 400 metres from the summit of K2, the world’s second-highest peak, when the mountaineers were ascending. Hassan, who used to fix ropes, fell off an edge at a height of around 8,200 metres and died after sustaining serious injuries, reported The Times.

Hassan was left hanging, trapped in ropes that he was setting up for the climbers. His oxygen masks had also broken, the report added.

Following the climb, drone footage was shared on the internet that shows an injured Hassan lying in the snow, according to news.com.au.

According to Austrian climbers Wilhelm Steindl and Philip Flamig, who too were scaling K2 that day and recorded a drone footage, Harila's team was heading towards the summit despite the porter lying injured.

“He is being treated by one person while everyone else is pushing towards the summit. The fact is that there was no organised rescue operation although there were sherpas and mountain guides on site who could have taken action,” Flamig told Austria’s Standard newspaper.

Screenshot: YouTube/The Telegraph

Screenshot: YouTube/The Telegraph

Steindl too said that “such a thing would be unthinkable in the Alps. He was treated like a second-class human being”.

According to Steindl, who visited Hassan’s family, the porter lacked experience but had still taken up the job to fix ropes so that he could pay for his diabetic mother’s treatment, the report added. "If he had been a Westerner, he would have been rescued immediately," Steindl said.

Harila, who last month scaled her 14th highest peak in just over three months, became the world's fastest climber to reach the peaks of all the world's mountains above 8,000 metres, according to the Daily Mail.

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