Daring rescue team climbs in pitch darkness to reach stranded French woman on Pakistan’s ‘killer mountain’
Bad weather forces team to abandon search for mountaineer’s Polish companion on Nanga Parbat
Elite climbers have scaled the treacherous slopes of Pakistan’s “killer mountain” in pitch darkness in an extraordinary attempt to rescue two mountaineers.
The rescuers climbed more than 1,000 metres up Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, to reach Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol in the middle of the night.
But they were forced to make the heartbreaking decision not to go on to find Tomasz Mackiewicz, from Poland.
Ludovic Giambiasi, a friend of Revol, said: “The rescue for Tomasz is unfortunately not possible – because of the weather and altitude it would put the life of rescuers in extreme danger. It’s a terrible and painful decision. We are in deep sadness. All our thoughts go out to Tomasz’s family and friends. We are crying.”
Revol and Mackiwiecz had been climbing the Himalayan peak, which is 8,126 metres (26,660 feet) high, when Mackiewicz developed frostbite and snow blindness on Friday after reaching about 7,400 metres.