Norwegian mountaineer denies suggestions she stepped over tragic K2 carrier during world record ascent

The record-breaking Norwegian climber who reportedly stepped over a carrier as he lay dying on an ascent of K2 has dismissed the claims, saying she is a victim of ‘misinformation’.

Kristin Harila, 37, became the fastest climber to climb the 14 highest mountains in the world, finishing on July 27 after just 92 days on Pakistan’s K2 mountain.

But Harila and her team have received strong allegations that they were walking around 27-year-old Muhammad Hassan when he died, entangled in ropes 400 meters from the summit.

Hassan, part of the team before them, was unable to speak or hear after falling from a narrow ledge onto a bottleneck in the mountain and died after two hours.

Video has since emerged of Harila’s team appearing to step over the father-of-three, while fellow mountaineers accuse them of being more focused on the record than saving his life.

Harila says she has been subjected to “hate” and death threats for celebrating her achievement, writing on Instagram: “This was nobody’s fault, you can’t comment if you don’t understand the situation, and sending death threats is never okay. .’

She said her team was left to pull the Sherpa up for 90 minutes before an avalanche nearby forced them to move on.

Harry wrote that the incident “happened on the most dangerous part of the world’s deadliest mountain,” urging critics to “remember that at 8,000+ meters, your survival instinct will influence the decision you make.”

She said: “I didn’t see exactly what happened, but suddenly Hassan had fallen and was hanging on the rope between two ice anchors,” she said.

“At first nobody moved, probably out of shock and fear, then we realized he was upside down and unable to climb up on his own.

“We decided to continue because too many people in the bottleneck would make it more dangerous to rescue.”

She said, “The bottleneck is a dangerous place to be, there’s snow and ice hanging over you, and you’re walking on an extremely narrow path, on snow that’s about to collapse beneath you.”

“Every minute you stay there increases the risk of accidents, not just for yourself, but for everyone above and below you.”

Even after the group left, she said there were still two and a half hours left to help Hassan.

She added: “Given how many people were left behind and had turned around, I thought Hassan would get all the help he could, and be able to get down.

“We didn’t understand the seriousness of everything that happened until later.”

Harila described Hassan as “a person who was important to so many people and he should not be remembered just as a person who passed on K2.”

Harila also shared a link to one GoFundMe fundraising page for Hassan’s family, set up by climber Wilhelm Steindl.

Steindl, who joined the climb but returned to base camp earlier due to the dangerous conditions, previously told the Dutch newspaper The Telegraph that he was getting sick of the passivity of the fellow climbers.

“It was a very heated, competitive race to the top. What happened there is outrageous.

“A living person is left behind, so records can be set. It only took 3 or 4 people to save him.

“Had I seen it, I would have climbed up to help the poor man.”

But Harila defended her actions The Daily Telegraphsaying ‘we did everything we could for him’.

She added: “It’s just not true to say we didn’t do anything to help him.

“We spent an hour and a half trying to lift him up again and my cameraman stayed on for another hour to tend to him. At no time was he left alone.’

She said that given the circumstances it was unlikely that he could be saved as he had fallen on what was “probably the most dangerous part of the mountain where the chance of carrying anyone off was limited by the narrow path and bad snow conditions”.

Harila is also accused of throwing a party shortly after setting the record – despite Hassan’s death.

At the time, she posted on Instagram one last reel of the top to celebrate their success.

The post received backlash from users, one of whom accused her of “crossing him twice without helping.”

Anwar Syed, of Lela Peak Expedition, told MailOnline that two climbers “tried their very best to bring him down, but they couldn’t and he died after two hours.”

The expedition group claims it offered payment to other porters to retrieve the body, but “everyone said it’s impossible to bring him down.”

Syed said Hassan was much higher than three climbers whose bodies were previously deemed irretrievable from the mountain in Pakistan.

Harila also said that she only found out about Hassan’s death when she came back down the mountain.

She said her team was unable to recover the body because it was “impossible to carry him down safely.”

“Back at base camp, we heard that people thought no one had helped him, but we did. We had done our best, especially Gabriel (the cameraman).

“It’s really tragic what happened and I feel very strongly for the family,” she said.

‘Please please please. Be nice. Not just for those who went to K2 that day and who all went through something very difficult.

“But most importantly, in memory of Hassan and those close to him. Be respectful.’