Srinagar: The heroic rescue effort on the Killer Mountain Nanga Parbat for the stranded Pakistan climber Asif Bhatti is becoming tricky day by day but rescuers, particularly Azerbaijan mountaineer Israfil Ashurli is setting example of heroic tale for the ages.
Asif Bhatti who was stranded on Camp 4 of Nanga Parbat due to snow blindness has been stuck on the Mountain since Monday at Camp 4 — an altitude of 7,500m.
Israfil Ashurli of Azerbaijan has been helping him to descend. Ashurli aborted his summit bid to help sick climbers in Camp 4 and refused to leave Bhatti behind despite a coming storm.
“On Wednesday, Ashurli dragged Bhatti from Camp 4 to Camp 3. Yesterday, he managed to make Camp 2. Mohammed Yunis and Fazal Ali, members of Bhatti’s outfitter Bluesky, departed Base Camp with O2 and supplies. Previously, other porters had stopped in Camp 1 because of bad conditions. In the night, rescuers managed to reach Bhatti and Ashurli somewhere above Camp 2 and helped them into camp,” reported ExplorersWeb.
The hardest sections lie ahead
Today, the Pakistani climbers are slowly bringing Bhatti down from Camp 2. He has been put on O2 but has frostbitten hands and the weather is bad. Ahead of them, they have some of the most technical sections of the route: the Kinshoffer wall (a rocky, vertical section) and a long, icy couloir right below, it said.
Bhatti and the porters started their descent some hours ago while Ashurli stopped at Camp 2 for some rest; he has not slept in three days, it further said.
“Kiani is with Sajid Sadpara of Pakistan and Hugo Ayaviri of Bolivia at Skardu Airport. They are waiting for the green light to fly to Nanga Parbat as soon as conditions allow. If they manage to fly to Base Camp, Sadpara and Ayaviri are willing to depart on foot. Even if conditions improved significantly, they could not be dropped any higher than Camp 1 because of the steep terrain. The weather makes a long-line operation impossible,” the ExplorersWeb reported.