On Thursday 15th March, a weather window in the upper Baltoro allowed Askari Aviation to fly a helicopter to search for the three missing climbers on Gasherbrum I.
As previously reported, on the 9th Gerfreid Goschl, Cedric Hahlen and Nisar Hussain Sadpara were spotted very close to the summit, having nearly completed a partial new route and what would have been the second (by less than a day) winter ascent.
The helicopter flew up to 7,000m on the mountain, studying the line of their ascent, and later the Normal Route up the Japanese Couloir. No trace whatsoever was seen of the missing climbers, and after flying along all possible flanks, the search was abandoned.
The helicopter then landed at Gasherbrum base camp and evacuated the three frostbitten Polish climbers to Skardu.
It is surmised that when the bad weather struck the mountain on the 9th, the three climbers were caught by strong winds and blown off the mountain.
After discussing the situation with Wolfgang Goschl, the brother of Gerfreid, who arrived in Skardu on the 15th, the leader of the Polish team, Artur Hajzer, decided to dismantle base camp and start his return down the Baltoro.
There has been some criticism of the rescue attempt, an official of the Pakistan Alpine Club allegedly saying that there was some lack of coordination in organization. However, it seems conditions on the mountain after the 9th were harsh; two climbers from Hajzer's team made an attempt to reach Camp 1 in an effort to search for the stricken climbers, but were defeated.
Pakistani authorities were particularly shocked by the death of Nisar Hussain Sadpara, one of only three professional Pakistani mountaineers to have climbed all five 8,000m peaks in the country.
Goschl came from a mountaineering family, his father having made the first ascent (in 1968) of the well-known Karakoram 7,257m peak, Diran. In 2009 Gotfreid completed a new route on the northwest buttress of Nanga Parbat, traversing right at 7,200m to the Normal route, before following the latter to the summit.
Hahlen, an aspirant guide, had climbed K2, Broad Peak and Kangchenjunga, and in 2006 made the first ascent of the north (Chinese) face of Gasherbrum II East (7,772m) with Hans Mitterer and Ueli Steck.
Thanks to Karrar Haidri for help with this report
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