GB inquiry committee set up to investigate death of Pakistani porter on K2

• Pakistani high-altitude porter Muhammad Hassan died on K2.
• He was alive when people climbed over him, but he passed away a short while later.
• Harila has faced criticism for not doing more to help Hassan.

The administration of Gilgit-Baltistan has established an inquiry committee to look into the tragic death of Pakistani high-altitude porter Muhammad Hassan on K2 last month.

Social media posts and videos showed that a group of climbers passed Hassan, who had apparently fallen off a ledge and passed away a short while later at an 8,200-meter-high trail known as the bottleneck.

Hassan was alive as people climbed over him, according to mountaineers Philip Flamig and Wilhelm Steindl, who shared images of the incident.

“We saw a guy alive, lying in the traverse in the bottleneck. And people were stepping over him on the way to the summit. And there was no rescue mission,” Steindl told the media.

“I was really shocked. And I was really sad. I started to cry about the situation that people just passed him and there was no rescue mission

Hassan was being treated by one of the climbers “while everyone else” moved towards the summit in a “heated, competitive summit rush”, Flamig told Austria’s local newspaper.

With the summit of K2 on July 27, Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepalese mountain guide Tenjen Sherpa set a record for the fastest ascent of all peaks higher than 8,000 meters in less than three months. However, they have received harsh criticism for not aiding the Pakistani porter, along with the other more than 100 climbers that passed Hassan.

To save Hassan’s life, Harila and her colleagues reportedly did everything possible, according to the media.

“It’s a tragic accident… here is a father and son and a husband who lost his life that day on K2. I think that’s very, very sad that it ended this way,” she said.

“We were trying to save him, we did everything we could for many hours… it’s a very, very narrow path.

“How are you going to climb and traverse and carry [a person]? It’s not possible.”

After facing abuse on social media in recent days, Harila also posted an update on Instagram, photo and video sharing website, in order to stop the spread of “misinformation and hatred”.

Harila mentioned that she lacked awareness about how the incident unfolded, but she observed that Hassan was suspended upside down on a rope between two ice anchors. His harness had slipped down to his knees, leaving him exposed to the harsh elements including snow, wind, and the cold temperature, which posed a significant danger.

She went on to explain that her team worked for around ninety minutes to secure a rope to Hassan, providing him with hot water and oxygen during the process. Unfortunately, an avalanche occurred nearby, adding to the complexity of the situation.

In order to prevent congestion at the bottleneck area, Harila made the decision to continue moving forward. She considered the number of individuals who had remained behind and turned back, believing that Hassan would receive adequate assistance in his current predicament.

“It was only when we came back down that we saw Hassan had passed and we were ourselves in no shape to carry his body down,” Harila added.

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