Pakistani climbers retrieve porter's body a year after K2 summit

KARACHI: In a landmark achievement, a team of high-altitude porters (HAPs), managed by top female mountaineer Naila Kiani, successfully retrieved the body of Muhammad Hassan Shigri from the Bottleneck of K2 at an altitude of 8,200 meters.

They brought his body back to the advance base camp (ABC), marking the first-ever rescue mission of its kind on the world's second-highest peak

The rescue operation, led by Kiani, was part of her ongoing clean-up project at K2.

Shigri slipped and fell from the most dangerous pass during a night climb and was left dangling upside down on a rope before fellow climbers were able to pull him up and attempt to revive him.

Shigri breathed his last on K2 last year due to extreme weather conditions. It was later reported that the porter did not have enough gears to protect himself nor was he trained enough to climb at this height.

Following the incidents, there were videos on social media showing climbers passing-by the struggling and then dead Hassan Sadpara.

The incident sparked discussions around the need for better training, leadership, and ethical standards in mountaineering. 

Hassan’s family approached Kiani for assistance, prompting her to organize the mission using existing infrastructure to keep costs minimal.

Despite the tight timeline — requesting the No Objection Certificate (NOC) only a week before the summit push — the team capitalised on a favourable weather window for this urgent mission.

Previous funding efforts for similar expeditions were hindered by high costs and lack of approval. However, this mission, conducted on a not-for-profit basis, significantly reduced expenses to one-third of the initial estimates provided to the Gilgit-Baltistan government.

The rescue team on mountain, which consisted of Dilawar Sadpara, Akbar Hussein Sadpara, Zakir Hussein Sadpara, Mohammed Murad Sadpara and Ali Mohammed Sadpara, reached the ABC at around 6:30pm local time on Wednesday.

The climbers included Norwegian record-breaker Kristin Harila who, along with her Nepali guide Tenjin "Lama" Sherpa, that night became the fastest person to summit the world's 14 highest mountains.

"The rescue team made history and turned the impossible into possible," Karrar Haidri, Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan told AFP of the recovery of Shigri's body last Wednesday.

Shigri's body was returned to his family for burial.

"We want to thank Naila Kiani and the porters who did this great job. To bring the dead body back was a big wish of the family," his cousin Aslam Naz Shigri told AFP over the phone.

Climbers were criticised at the time for stepping over Shigri's body but Harila said she and her team "did everything we could for him".

Porters, also called sherpas in the Himalayas, are highly skilled professionals who specialise in the logistics of mountain climbing.

The incident of Shigri sparked discussions around the need for better training, leadership, and ethical standards in mountaineering.

According to Kiani, this rescue mission not only aims to provide a dignified burial for Shigri but also showcases the exceptional skills and dedication of Pakistani high-altitude workers.

“The mission underscores the importance of investing in training and certification for local climbers to encourage international climbers to hire local guides,” she said.

Kiani added that the success of this mission now hinges on critical support from the Pakistan Army for a helicopter evacuation from ABC to ensure the rescuers' safety and prevent the decomposition of Hassan's body due to high temperatures.

Rescue missions are high-risk operations even on the most common routes on K2 and bodies can be left behind for months, or even years, until the weather allows for them to be recovered on foot.

K2, standing at 8,611 metres on the Pakistan-China border, is 238 metres shorter than Everest but is considered more technically challenging.

Pakistan is home to five of the world's 14 mountains above 8,000 metres. Four foreign climbers have fallen to their deaths in separate incidents on Pakistan mountains this summer climbing season.

French mountaineer Benjamin Vedrines made the fastest ascent of K2 in 10 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds in July, slashing by more than half the previous record for reaching the summit without bottled oxygen.