Missing foreign climbers: rescue op abandoned at Nanga Parbat

ISLAMABAD: No clue found for the two mountaineers from Britain and Italy who went missing during the rescue operation carried out by Pakistan Army military helicopters at the world’s ninth-highest peak Nanga Parbat, ARY News reported on Friday.

The Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) secretary announced the rescue operation has been abandoned to search Ballard and Nardi which continued for 10 days.

However, the military helicopters failed to spot signs of Ballard and Nardi during the aerial search.

Karrar Haidri told media that contact with the mountaineers had disconnected on February 24. Pakistan Army Helicopters provided full assistance during the search and rescue operations for the foreign climbers, said Haidri.

“British High Commissioner and Italian Embassy have been informed regarding the situation,” Haidri added.

Climbers Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi were last heard from on February 24 as they climbed the Nanga Parbat, infamously known as ‘killer mountain’. They were attempting a route that has never before been successfully completed.

Ballard is the son of British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to conquer Mount Everest solo and without bottled oxygen. She died descending K2 in 1995.

Earlier on March 4, Pakistan Army aviation division’s officials had said that the military helicopters had failed to spot signs of two mountaineers from Britain and Italy who went missing at Nanga Parbat.

Two helicopters had flown a Spanish climbing team from the base of K2 – the world’s second highest mountain and also in northern Pakistan – to Nanga Parbat Monday afternoon to look for the missing climbers, said a top army aviation official.

He said the helicopters carried out an aerial search with the help of Pakistani mountaineer Rehmatullah Baig – who was climbing with the missing men before turning back – but could not find anything.