South Korean missing after fall while descending from Pakistani peak

Kim Hong Bin had earlier reached the summit of Broad Peak in the Karakoram range of Himalayas and thus became the first person with disability to scale all off the world's 14 8,000 metre summits.
Kim Hong Bin (Photo | YouTube screengrab)
Kim Hong Bin (Photo | YouTube screengrab)

ISLAMABAD: A famous South Korean climber fell into a crevasse and went missing over the weekend in bad weather after scaling another mountain peak in northern Pakistan, a mountaineering official said Tuesday.

Kim Hong Bin was descending after having reached the 8,047-meter (26,400-foot) high Broad Peak in Pakistan's north Karakoram Range on Sunday, said Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Pakistan Alpine Club.

With the summit, the 57-year-old Kim had scaled all of the world's 14 highest summits, becoming the first person with a disability to do so.

In 1991, while climbing in Alaska, he suffered severe frostbite and had all his fingers amputated.

While descending from the peak with several other mountaineers on Sunday, Kim slipped and fell down the Chinese side of the mountain, according to Haidri.

“Since then no information is available about him," the official said, adding that a search mission is being planned.

Kim's successes include the world's highest, Mount Everest on the China-Nepal border, and Pakistan's K2, the second-highest, which like Broad Peak is also in the Karakoram Range.

"Disability never became a hurdle for Kim," Haidri said, "and did not stand in the way of his passion."

The other mountaineers, who had in vain tried to find Kim, were safe and were descending amid bad weather.

The South Korean Embassy in Islamabad was also organising a search mission, he added.

"“We do not want to speculate on Kim's fate," Haidri told The Associated Press, refusing to comment reports on Twitter that the climber had died.

Ghulam Muhammad, the owner of Blue Sky Expedition tour operating company who arranged the expedition for Kim, also confirmed the “unfortunate incident when the South Korean was returning to base camp.

The organisers of the expedition were in contact with the family of the missing South Korean and any further information will be shared by his family or by the South Korean officials, he added.

Scores of mountaineers visit Pakistan every year to scale different mountains and peaks, located in the country's scenic north.

But the sport is dangerous, particularly when a sudden change in weather occurs.

Earlier this year, three climbers — Pakistani mountaineer Ali Sadpara, Jon Snorri of Iceland and Juan Pablo Mohr of Chile —died while attempting to summit the 8,611-meter (28,250-foot) high K2.

Their bodies could not be traced and retrieved despite several attempts by the Pakistani search and rescue team aided by the military.

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The New Indian Express
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