Read more from Author Ben Oakley here: https://globelivemedia.com/author/ben-oakley/
A Russian-American mountaineer, missing since Saturday on a mountain in northeast Pakistan where he was trying to acclimatize for the winter ascent of Broad Peak (8,047 meters), was found dead, an expedition spokesman announced Tuesday.
Alex Goldfarb‘s body was spotted by a rescue helicopter at Pastore Peak (6,209 meters), in the Karakorum mountain range, “where it appears to have fallen,” spokesman Laszlo Pinter said in a statement.
Goldfarb was taking part, along with the Hungarian Zoltan Szlanko, in an expedition to climb Broad Peak this northern winter, one of the fourteen peaks in the world of more than 8,000 meters.
To acclimatize, the two men began the ascent of Pastore Peak on Saturday, a mountain that was never climbed in winter.
Judging that the conditions were too dangerous, Szlanko decided to return, but could not convince his partner to do the same, according to the spokesman. Then Goldfarb no longer contacted his team, as he should have.
He is the second mountaineer killed in a few days in Karakorum. On Saturday the Spanish Sergi Mingote did not survive a fall in K2 (8,611 meters), the second highest peak in the world, located ten kilometers from Broad Peak.
That same day, a team of ten Nepalese achieved the first winter ascent of K2, the only “8,000” that had never been climbed in winter.
Winter is particularly harsh in the Karakorum, more so than in the Himalayas. Nicknamed the “wild mountain”, the K2 is subjected in winter to winds of up to 200 km / h and temperatures that can drop to -60 ° C.