The body of one of the two missing Japanese climbers was found at Spantik Peak in Shigar Valley on Saturday during a rescue operation, while the search for the other climber continues.
The two Japanese climbers went missing during their attempt to summit the 7,027-meter Spantik Peak. Initial ground rescue efforts on Wednesday failed to locate them.
Ryuseki Hiraoka and Atsushi Taguchi, climbing in Alpine style without porters, had reached Camp 2 at an altitude of 5,300 meters between the Shigar and Nagar districts of Gilgit-Baltistan on Monday. However, when another seven-member Japanese expedition team arrived at the camp the next day, the climbers were not there.
Subsequently, the expedition team suspended their climb and returned to the base camp to inform the officials.
Shigar Deputy Commissioner Waliullah Falahi confirmed to Dawn.com that one of the climbers had been found dead. “The nine-member rescue team recovered one climber and kept it at [a] safe place. Now they [are] searching for [the] other climber,” he said.
Naiknaam Karim from tour operator Adventure Tours Pakistan also confirmed that the body was found and that the search for the other climber was ongoing.
As of this report, the body remained unidentified.
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DC Falahi told Dawn.com that nine high-altitude climbers, including four Japanese climbers, began the ground rescue operation on Friday morning. The team reached Camp 2 at 5,300 meters on Friday evening and stayed there overnight.
On Saturday morning, the rescue team members descended a 300-meter crevice in an attempt to locate the missing climbers. Pakistan Army helicopters had spotted the pair and identified a potential location on Thursday.
The body was found 300 meters below Camp 3.
