Scottish climber Rick Allen has died while attempting to summit Pakistan’s K2, his expedition team said yesterday, the latest death on the world’s second-highest mountain.
Allen, 68, was killed after being hit by an avalanche while attempting a new route on the mountain over the weekend.
His body was recovered on Sunday evening.
“After consulting with his family and friends, the legend will be buried this morning under the foot of Mighty K2,” Karakorum Expeditions wrote on Facebook yesterday.
A charity that Allen was raising money for during the climb also confirmed his death.
“Rick died doing what he loved the most and lived his life with the courage of his convictions,” Partners Relief & Development wrote on Twitter, adding that two other climbers on the expedition survived the avalanche.
SECOND DEATH
Allen’s death comes a week after South Korea’s Kim Hong-bin was killed after falling into a crevasse while descending from the nearby Broad Peak.
With Pakistan’s borders open and few other places to go due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the nation’s summer climbing season is attracting a large number of expeditions.
The summer season follows history being made in northern Pakistan as a team of Nepalese climbers became the first to summit K2 in the winter, but at least five other climbers have died on K2’s slopes, while a sixth person went missing during an ascent of a nearby mountain.
TOUGHEST CLIMB
Known as “the savage mountain,” K2 has harsh conditions — winds can blow at more than 200kph and temperatures can drop to minus-60°C.
Unlike the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, which has been scaled by thousands of climbers young and old, K2 is much less traveled.
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