MADRID (AFP) — Several mountaineers are dead or missing on the 8,611-metre K2 peak in the Himalayas, Spanish media reported early Sunday, saying Basque climber Alberto Zerain had escaped.
Basque daily Gara quoted him as saying he had reached the summit of K2, the world's second highest mountain after Mount Everest, on Friday evening but a "drama" had hit several members of an 18-person international expedition trying to scale the mountain.
An avalanche or a falling block of ice had swept away up to 11 people near the summit, according to a blog linked to the expedition quoted by the Spanish press (http://broadpeak08.blogspot.com/).
Gara said Zerain had told a radio station in the Spanish Basque country that he did not know the exact toll of the accident, while some Spanish media spoke of at least four deaths.
In the expedition were Koreans, Pakistanis, Nepalis, a Dutchman and an Italian, the media reported, adding that reports of the accident remained confused.
K2, which sits on the border between Pakistan and China, is notoriously difficult to climb. Weather patterns in the high-altitude Karakorum range where the mountain is placed are also extremely volatile.
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