Just two climbers tried to help a dying Sherpa on the second highest mountain in the world while fellow mountaineers milled about.
Muhammad Hassan, 27, was seriously injured 400 meters from the top of K2 after slipping in a bottleneck off the mountain on July 27.
The father-of-three allegedly “slipped and got caught” with a rope and was unable to “speak or even hear” while waiting for help.
The expedition was his first collaboration with the Lela Peak Expedition group, although it is not known if it was his first as a climber.
Anwar Syed, of Lela Peak Expedition, told the Mail Online 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.”
Mr Syed said Mr Hassan was much higher than three climbers whose bodies were previously believed to be irretrievable from the mountain in Pakistan.
Fellow mountaineers have accused climbers of being more interested in setting records than saving the wearer’s life.
Instead of helping him, fellow climbers went up the mountain and past him
Muhammad Hassan was dying after slipping at a dangerous point on the mountain
Footage shows dozens of fellow climbers cautiously approaching him, risking their lives as they cling to the side of the narrow ledge.
They then scrambled around the stricken 27-year-old as they continued up the mountain.
Norway’s Kristin Harila and her team who passed Hassan are among those criticized.
She is also accused of throwing a party shortly after breaking the record for climbing 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over three months – despite Hassan’s death.
She has claimed that she and her team did everything they could to help Hassan, but conditions at K2 were too dangerous to move him.
But mountaineer Philip Flämig, an Austrian who was climbing with Wilhelm Steindl, said footage shot by the two with a drone shows a trail of climbers walking over the stricken body instead of helping Hassan.
“He is handled by one person, while everyone pushes to the top.
“The fact is that there was no organized rescue operation, while sherpas and mountain guides were on site who could have taken action.”
He called the death a “disgrace” and said “such a thing would be unthinkable in the Alps” – referring to the ongoing debate over how Sherpas are used in the Himalayas.
‘If he had been a Westerner, he would have been saved immediately. Nobody felt responsible for him,” he told the Austrian newspaper.
“A living human was left to set records.”
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”.
Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (pictured) said she and her team did everything they could to help Hassan, but conditions at K2 were too dangerous to move him
The climbers were just 400 meters from the top of K2, the second highest mountain in the world
Footage from last month’s fatal accident shows people physically climbing over Hassan as he lies helpless in the deep snow.
The video then pans over to show clouds several thousand feet below them, showing how high they were when the footage was captured.
The air is so thin at this altitude that all the people in the video wore oxygen masks.
It seems only one person helped him, an unknown rescuer who managed to keep him conscious for a while before he died of his injuries. There was no rescue operation to help the young man.
Steindl, who joined the climb but had returned to base camp earlier due to the dangerous conditions, also 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.’
Despite these strong claims, differing accounts of the tragedy have circulated, leading to uncertainty about exactly what happened up until K2.
Lakpa Sherpa, a mountaineer who was on the climb and took the video, told MailOnline that the footage doesn’t capture what actually happened:
“Some climbers and Sherpas tried to save his life, although he died.
“The climbers have all spent a lot of money doing this climb and there is also the value of time for the climb. Hundreds of climbers tried to save him, but they can’t give up their mission.
“The reality is they have tried to save life and this is below the bottleneck of the great serace where it is impossible to cross without a rope so it is a very difficult situation.
“Many climbers and sherpas told him to go back because he had very poor equipment and was not well rested and also very bad weather during the summit window, but he didn’t listen and then fell down.
“It was very difficult to bring the body down. They have to climb the mountain. There’s only a small chance for them.’
Bulgarian climber Silvia Azdreeva, who was traveling when Hassan died, said in a Facebook post that climbing K2 is not for the faint hearted: “On K2 there is no one to rescue you so quickly, you will have to wait for days if something happens to you.
This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character.’
Bulgarian climber Silvia Azdreeva said: ‘This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character’
K2 – imaged from the town of Askole in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan – gained fame as the ‘Savage Mountain’ after American mountaineer George Bell descended from the summit in 1953
Shockingly, Wilhelm Steindl claimed that a party was held shortly after Mr. Hassan died in honor of Kristin Harila, a Norwegian woman who set a new world record after climbing 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over 3 months.
“I didn’t go, I was disgusted. Someone had just died there,” said the furious climber.
He revealed in a GoFundMe set up for Mr. Hassan’s family that he leaves behind three children and a wife, as well as an elderly grandmother.
At the time of publication, the page has already raised £63,000.
New world record holder Kristin Harila said of the tragedy: “My heart and thoughts and prayers go out to Hassan’s family and loved ones and I feel very sad about this whole situation.”
K2 is considered the world’s most dangerous mountain, as it has a fatality rate of about 19 percent, compared to only 6.5 percent on Everest, according to estimates.
For every 20 people who climb Everest, only one climbs K2 and there are inherently more risks.
Routes on K2 are not as defined or well laid out, with the climb being much more technical with a combination of rock, ice and mountaineering – and avalanches are also much more common.
The mountain came to be known as the ‘Savage Mountain’ after American mountaineer George Bell came down from the summit in 1953, where he almost slid to his death.
“It’s a wild mountain trying to kill you,” he remarked after his treacherous climb.