Mountaineer Alex Goldfarb disappears on Pastore Peak

After the death of Sergi Mingote, bad news keeps coming. Alex Goldfarb, of Russian-American origin, disappeared this Saturday while ascending Pastore Peak (6,209 m) between K2 base camps and Broad Peak. He was preparing for the winter summit of Broad Peak (8,047 m) with the Hungarian Zoltan Szlank without artificial oxygen or help from tall porters. Last winter they already climbed the East Lobuche (6,119 m) and Ama Dablam (6,812 m), in Nepal.

Both had arrived in Pakistan on December 28 with the goal of ascending the twelfth highest mountain on the planet in the coldest time of the year. He had planned to do it lightly. On January 8 they arrived at base camp and since then they had made several routes to acclimatize.This Saturday, Goldfarb was going into the mountain with Zoltan, but The Hungarian, as he recognizes in his networks, withdrew when he felt that the terrain was too dangerous and suggested to his partner that he did too. However, Alex decided to go solo.

In his last communication with the base camp, Goldfarb told them to return on January 16, but when he did not return on the scheduled day, the alarms went off, and Zoltn gave the warning voice. This morning rescue operation has been launched, although at the moment they still can’t find him. John Snorri, who was on K2 to summit without oxygen, has left to assist Szlank in rescuing his expedition companion. This Monday the local authorities will send a helicopter to the area.

Broad Peak has only been climbed once in winter. It was on March 5, 2013, in charge of the Poles Adam Bielecki, Artur Malek, Maciej Berbeka and Tomasz Kowalski, and the last two died during the descent.