Fears grow for missing Italian, British on Nanga Parbat

ISLAMABAD: Bad weather forced rescuers to call off a search Friday for two climbers from Britain and Italy who went missing in northern Pakistan on a peak known as "Killer Mountain". Climbers Daniele Nardi and Tom Ballard were last heard from on Sunday as they climbed the Nanga Parbat, which at 8,125 metres (26,660 feet) is the world’s ninth-highest peak. They were attempting a route that has never before been successfully completed.

Heavy snowfall Friday kept a helicopter from taking off and a ground team confined to base camp in the western Himalayas. "Snowfall has reduced the visibility and we expect snowfall for the coming three to four days, which makes it difficult for us to climb up and do a ground search," Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara told AFP by telephone from Nanga Parbat base camp.

He said the mountaineers had taken the notorious Mummery route, named after a mountaineer who died while attempting it in 1895. The route has never been attempted since then, he said. "The risk of avalanche makes it (rescue) almost impossible in this weather," he added. Sadpara, along with other four local mountaineers, were airlifted to the base camp for a ground search.

A top army aviation official said a Pakistani military helicopter that was set to search from the air was unable to take off due to the snow. "The weather prediction for the coming few days is not good, and unfortunately it will make it very difficult for us to fly," he said. Four Russian mountaineers currently at the base camp for K2, the world’s second highest mountain and also in northern Pakistan, had volunteered to join the search.