ISLAMABAD -- A Japanese mountaineer is presumed dead after he and his partner fell about 70 metres (230 feet) while climbing a never-scaled mountain in northern Pakistan, their tour operator and a mountaineering official said Wednesday. The second climber, also Japanese, was injured.
The accident occurred Friday afternoon as the pair climbed a mountain in the Andaq Valley, part of northern Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region which is also home to K2, the world's second-highest mountain, said Karakarom Tours Pakistan.
The climbers, Shinji Tamura and Semba Takayasu, fell when they had reached an altitude of 5,380 metres (17,650 feet), the tour operator said in a statement.
Takayasu later said that their rappelling point had broken and that they fell together. He said his partner "was heavily hit" and badly injured. Both climbers were hit by rocks and Tamura then slammed into a rock when he landed, said Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
Tamura was seriously injured, while his climbing partner managed to return to base camp to call for help, the tour operator said. It said that late Friday, the base camp crew observed a light on the mountain which was identified as Tamura's headlight.
A rescue team was dispatched and discovered some of Tamura's climbing gear near a crevasse, the operator said. Tamura could not be located despite an extensive search, and the team "assumed that he had fallen into the crevasse," the statement said.
Searchers encountered treacherous conditions, said Takayasu. The search was called off Monday because of the difficult terrain and adverse conditions, the tour operator said.
"There is no chance of survival in such incidents," said Haidri, the mountaineering official.
Takayasu was airlifted Monday to Skardu, the main town in northern Pakistan, which is known as the gateway to K2.
Every year, hundreds of local and foreign climbers visit northern Pakistan, where some of the world's tallest mountains are located.
Haidri said there are hundreds of never-climbed mountains in northern Pakistan, and such mountains are usually named after those who scale them -- a draw for ambitious mountaineers.
Pakistani authorities said Saturday they were investigating the death of a Pakistani porter near the peak of K2, the world's most treacherous mountain.
