Polish climber on Nanga Parbhat presumed dead

Islamabad, Jan. 28 A Polish climber was presumed dead after rescuers called off efforts to recover him from Nanga Parbat, one of the highest mountains in the world, a Pakistani official said on Monday.

Tomasz Mackiewicz of Poland and Elisabeth Revol of France were trying to climb the 8,126- metre- tall Himalayan peak located in the Gilgit- Baltistan region of Pakistan and known as the ‘ killer mountain’ in the mountaineer community.

The two went missing on Thursday after sending a message that they were stuck at more metres altitude temperature.

Two Pakistan Army helicopters started operation on Sunday on the request of the Polish and French embassies with the help of climbers from Poland, who separately were trying to scale K- 2 in the same region.

Karrar Haidri, a top official in the Pakistan Alpine Federation, said the four volunteers were airlifted to the Nanga Parbat and dropped as close to the two climbers as the helicopters could go. “They were able to rescue Elisabeth Revol but than 7,500 in freezing could not reach Tomasz Mackiewicz,” Haidri said. Later, Haidri said that Mackiewicz has been “presumed dead”.

He said the rescuers left the body at 7,400 meters as they could not bring it down. “The rescue of Tomasz is unfortunately not possible because of the weather and altitude it would put the life of the rescuers in extreme danger,” wrote Ludovic Giambiasi, a friend who is posting regular updates on Facebook, “It’s a terrible and painful decision. We are in deep sadness.”