French climber rescued from Nanga Parbat

Islamabad: An elite group of climbers saved a French mountaineer in a daring high-altitude rescue mission on Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat, one of the highest mountains in the world, as officials called off the search for a second missing alpinist on Sunday.

The group of Polish climbers with support from the Pakistani military launched the effort Saturday afternoon to rescue stranded French mountaineer Elisabeth Revol, but were unable to reach Polish national Tomek Mackiewicz on Nanga Parbat, nicknamed “killer mountain”.

“The rescue for Tomasz is unfortunately not possible - because of the weather and altitude it would put the life of rescuers in extreme danger,” wrote Ludovic Giambiasi, a friend of Revol, in a series of updates on Facebook.

“It’s a terrible and painful decision.” The rescue mission involved four mountaineers who were flown by the Pakistani military from the base camp of K2 — the world’s second-highest peak —  to reach the stranded climbers.

“The K2 climbers who stopped their historic effort for a winter K2 summit will descend with Elisabeth Revol —  one life saved,” said Karar Haideri, spokesman for the Alpine Club of Pakistan, in a statement on Sunday.

The team is in the process of being evacuated by helicopter after a five and a half hour descent down the mountain to Nanga Parbat’s camp one early on Sunday, where they are set to airlifted to a hospital in nearby Skardu. “(Revol) has frostbite and some (snow) blindness,” said Asghar Ali Porik from Jasmine Tours who helped organise the K2 expedition.

Pakistani climber Karim Shah said the rescue effort was unmatched in the history of mountaineering, with the team ascending 1,200 metres in darkness along a treacherous route without a rope.