FOUR THINGS ABOUT A DISABLED CLIMBER MISSING IN HIMALAYAS

1 RECORD SETTER

Kim Hong-bin, a 57-year-old South Korean mountaineer who became the first person with disabilities to scale all 14 of the highest peaks in the Himalayas, but has disappeared on the descent from his latest conquest.

2 LATEST FEAT

Kim reached the summit of the 26,401-foot Broad Peak, on the border of Pakistan and China, shortly before 5 p.m. local time on Sunday. The four-day ascent meant he had stood on the peak of all 14 of the highest mountains in the range. According to the Union of Asian Alpine Associations, Kim was the 44th person to achieve the feat, and the first with a disability.

3 DISABILITY

He had to have all his fingers amputated after a 1991 solo ascent of Alaska's Mount McKinley, the tallest peak in North America. Undeterred, he went on to become the first person with disabilities to climb the highest mountains on all seven continents.

4 TRAGEDY

Seventeen hours after Kim reported his success at Broad Peak he sent a distress call after apparently becoming lost at an altitude of around 25,900 feet. The climber is believed subsequently to have slipped and fallen while descending the Chinese side of the mountain in poor weather, said Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Pakistan Alpine Club. Other climbing teams that were nearby responded to the call but have been unable to locate Kim, it was reported. Mr Kim was with a party of six other mountaineers, but it is not known if the rest of his team is also missing.