Surviving Spaniards airlifted from K-2 base camp

By Alistair Lyon, Reuters

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani army helicopters flew two frostbitten Spanish climbers to safety Saturday from Base Camp on K-2, the world's second highest peak.

The rescue mission, held up by bad weather on Friday, followed the deaths of seven Western climbers on K-2 earlier in the week.

A Pakistani military liaison officer told Reuters by telephone from Skardu that Jose Antonio "Pepe" Garces, leader of the Spanish expedition, and Lorenzo Ortas Pont had arrived by helicopter in the northern town with team doctor Manuel Avellanos.

``Both climbers are all right, though they have frostbite in their hands and fingers,'' the officer said, adding that they would be flown by plane to Islamabad on Sunday.

Six climbers--Scott Alison Hargreaves, American Rob Slater, New Zealander Bruce Grant and Spaniards Javier Escartin, Lorenzo Ortiz Monson and Javier Olivar--died after summitting the 28,250-foot peak on Aug. 13.

As the climbers descended, they were engulfed in a freezing 100-mph gale at about 24,800 feet, a Spanish diplomat said.

In a separate incident, Canadian climber Jeff Lakes fell sick with pulmonary edema, brought on by the altitude, and made his way down from Camp 4 to Camp 2 where he died on Aug. 14.

In Britain, Jose Bermudez, a climber and student, said the Spanish survivors had seen a body which they identified as that of Hargreaves but had seen no trace of her colleagues.

Three months ago Hargreaves, a 33-year-old mother of two, became the first woman to conquer Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, alone and without supplemental oxygen.

Bermudez told reporters he had spoken by telephone to the two Spaniards, now recovering in Skardu, who had previously met Hargreaves at the K-2 base camp.

"They told me they had seen a body on the 14th of August -- Monday -- which they thought was Alison's, near to which were various objects which they identified -- a climbing harness, a boot and jacket. They were a fair distance away.

"They assumed she had fallen, probably from somewhere between the summit and camp four. The body lay at 7,000 metres" he added.

Hargreaves' husband, Jim Ballard, 49, said Saturday when he heard the news from Bermudez: ``Obviously I prepared myself for this thing. This probably is the start of the close of the book.''

The Spanish diplomat said the two rescued Spaniards would fly home as soon as possible for treatment in the town of Zaragoza in the Pyrenees, the team's home region.

The Pakistani army liaison officer said surviving climbers from the U.S.- and New Zealand-led expeditions were returning to Skardu on foot and should arrive in the next two to three days.

In London, Roger Payne, general secretary of the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), confirmed on Friday that two other British climbers had been killed in an avalanche on a previously unconquered mountain in Pakistan on Aug. 6.

BMC President Paul Nunn and 50-year-old Geoff Tier, both ``very experienced'' climbers, died after scaling Mount Haromosh 2, about 60 miles from K-2, Payne said.

They were killed after a snow and ice avalanche swept away the rope they were using, he added.

A diplomat at the British High Commission in Islamabad said three British climbers who had been with them at the time, including team leader David Wilkinson, had returned to Skardu.