Army pilots rescue two foreign mountaineers stuck at Ultar Sar Peak

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan army pilots on Sunday rescued two foreign mountaineers who were stuck in a snow avalanche at above 19, 000 feet high Ultar Sar Peak near Hunza Valley of Gilgit Baltistan.

In a tweet, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said: “Pakistan Army pilots in a daring mission rescued 3 foreign mountaineers stuck in snow avalanche at above 19000 feet high Ultar Sar Peak near Hunza.”

Pakistan Army pilots in a daring mission rescued 3 foreign mountaineers stuck in snow avalanche at above 19000 feet high Ultar Sar Peak near Hunza. Bruce Normand & Miller Timothy from UK successfully rescued alive while Christian Huber from Austria had succumbed to avalanche. pic.twitter.com/z0OyaCE63H

— Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) July 1, 2018

Bruce Normand and Miller Timothy from the United Kingdom were successfully rescued alive while Christian Huber from Austria had succumbed to the avalanche, it added.

A day earlier, an army helicopter could not carry out a rescue operation due to bad weather on the 7,388 metres high Ultar Sar, but a ground team were making their way up to the scene.

A local administration official who asked not to be named confirmed the incident and casualties.

Northern Pakistan is a magnet for mountaineers and is home to some of the tallest mountains in the world, including K2 — at 8,611 metres, the world’s second highest peak, but often deemed a more challenging climb than the highest, Mount Everest.

Nestled between the western end of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush mountains and the Karakoram range, Gilgit-Baltistan houses 18 of the world’s 50 highest peaks.

It is also home to three of the world’s seven longest glaciers outside the polar regions. Hundreds of its mountains have never been climbed.