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An investigation has been launched after claims surfaced that a group of record-breaking mountaineers left a sherpa to die in their quest to scale K2.

The climbers have denied the allegations that they refused to rescue Mohammed Hassan in their eagerness to break a world record.

The 27-year-old father of three died while supporting the climbers on the world’s most dangerous mountain. Dozens of climbers allegedly walked past the poor guy in their eagerness to reach the summit after he was gravely injured in a fall.

The accusations surrounding the events overshadowed a record-breaking climb by Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila and her Nepalese guide Tenjen (Lama) Sherpa. They became the fastest climbers to scale the world’s 14 highest mountains, which took 92 days. Harila is said to have rejected responsibility for the death.

Hassan slipped and fell on the trek called The Bottleneck, a very narrow trail considered one of the most dangerous areas to cross.

The allegations were made by two other climbers who were on K2 that day, Austrian Wilhelm Steindl and German Philip Flaemig. The two spoke out after reviewing drone footage of the day, which shows climbers ignoring the injured climber as they stepped over him.

The men claim that the group could have saved Hassan if they were willing to give up their record hopes.

“There is a double standard here. If I or any other Westerner had been lying there, everything would have been done to save them. Everyone would have had to turn back to bring the injured person back down to the valley.”

Harila however said her team “tried for hours to save” Mr Hassan – with one team member even taking off his oxygen mask and giving it to him because he did not have his own.

She said Hassan had been ‘dangling from a rope upside down’ after his fall at the bottleneck, but her team was able to bring him back onto the trail after almost an hour. It’s also been claimed that Hassan was not wearing a down suit and did not have gloves, nor did he even have oxygen.

The mountaineer then continued on with her guide until they reached the summit. Hassan died only 150 metres below.

Because of the bottleneck’s dangerous conditions it would not be possible to retrieve Mr Hassan’s body and hand it to the family.

An investigation into Hassan’s death was confirmed by Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Pakistan Alpine Club. Have a look at the drone footage below:

K2 is widely considered one of the hardest peaks in mountaineering and as of February 2021, some 377 people had summited the mountain while 91 died trying – a ratio of one death for every four successful climbs.

Experts say it is even more dangerous than Everest, the world’s tallest peak, because less of the mountain flattens off and it is prone to avalanches and rock falls.

[source:skynews]