Army helicopters have spotted “traces” of two Japanese climbers who disappeared on Wednesday while attempting to summit the 7,027-meter Spantik Peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram range. However, as Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, stated, the climbers’ exact location and condition remain unknown.
The Shigar deputy commissioner has identified a potential location for the climbers. However, whether they are there is still uncertain, and their health status is unknown.
The missing climbers, Ryuseki Hiraoka and Atsushi Taguchi, attempted an Alpine-style ascent involving rapid climbing with minimal equipment and no fixed camps. They had reached Camp 2 at 5,300 meters on Monday. However, Hiraoka and Taguchi were absent when a seven-member Japanese team arrived at the camp the following day.
The team subsequently aborted their climb and descended to base camp to notify the authorities.
The Deputy Commissioner noted that rescue operations conducted early Thursday around 6:30 am pinpointed the possible location of the climbers at about 5,500 meters, between Camp 2 and Camp III.
Pakistan, home to five of the world’s fourteen mountains that exceed 8,000 meters—including K2, the second-highest peak—sees significant climbing activity. In 2023, over 8,900 foreigners visited the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region, which hosts its climbing season from early June to late August.
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