Mountaineer denies group stepped over dying porter as his death is branded 'a disgrace' - Beritaja

A renowned Norwegian mountaineer has denied claims her squad stepped complete a dying helper while climbing K2 - 1 of The tallest peaks connected The satellite - arsenic portion of a world grounds bid.

Kristin Harila, 37, says she is The unfortunate of "misinformation" and has had "hatred" aimed astatine her - including decease threats.

Last month, she became The fastest climber to standard each The world's 14 highest mountains - completing The accomplishment in conscionable 92 days.

Her last climb was of K2 connected 27 July, aft which she arrived pinch chap record-breaker, Nepali mountaineer Tenjen (Lama) Sherpa, in Kathmandu to a hero's welcome.

But during The K2 climb, a section helper who was portion of a squad up of them, slipped a fewer metres from a constrictive ledge, became tangled in ropes and later died connected The mountain.

Video has emerged showing climbers appearing to measurement complete The precocious porter, named arsenic 27-year-old father-of-three Muhammad Hassan, from Pakistan.

Two men, who were climbing K2 connected The aforesaid day, person since criticised The group, and claimed Mr Hassan was treated for illustration a "second-class quality being" by different climbers.

However, Ms Harila told Sky News her squad "tried for hours to save" Mr Hassan - and that 1 personnel moreover took disconnected his oxygen disguise and gave it to him because he did not person 1 of his own.

"We were conscionable down him erstwhile he fell," she said.

"We saw him hanging upside down - very early connected we decided we needed to effort and move him around.

"Lama tried to move him around, but he wasn't capable to because this is simply a very constrictive and very steep place, and it is not safe to enactment here."

Ms Harila said it took astir an hr to bring Mr Hassan backmost connected to The trail, astatine what she described arsenic a "dangerous bottleneck", pinch crystal and snowfall hanging complete it.

She said The group besides decided to split, pinch her and Lama continuing to The apical of The mountain, aft her guardant fixing squad ran into their ain difficulties.

"The main logic that we sewage this connection connected The power that The fixing squad were having problems," she said.

"So we had to make a determination to divided up. And in this place, it is simply a very, very constrictive trail, and it is intolerable to person 10 group thief astir because there's only room for 1 down and 1 in front.

"We decided to divided up, but we were judge he was still to get help."

Asked astir The location of The incident, she said: "This is astir apt The astir vulnerable portion of K2 and K2 is astir apt The astir vulnerable upland of each The large mountains.

"We cognize it is very risky to enactment location - but we had to effort to prevention him."

She said her cameraman, Gabrielle, remained pinch Mr Hassan, and gave him lukewarm h2o and oxygen by giving him his ain mask.

Ms Harila antecedently deed backmost astatine disapproval of her determination to proceed to The acme in a station connected Instagram.

"I americium angry astatine really galore group person been blaming others for this tragic accident," she wrote.

"This was nary one's fault, you cannot remark erstwhile you do not understand The situation, and sending decease threats is ne'er okay."

After reaching The top, Ms Harila filmed an "emotional" video celebrating their record-breaking climb.

She said she only discovered Mr Hassan had died arsenic she climbed down The mountain, and that she and her squad were incapable to retrieve his assemblage because it was "impossible to safely transportation him down".

"It is genuinely tragic what happened, and I consciousness very powerfully for The family. If anything, I dream we Can study thing from this tragedy," she added.

German cameraman Philip Flaemig was connected K2 astatine The clip and recorded drone footage - but decided not to proceed up The upland arsenic The conditions were excessively dangerous.

He said erstwhile he reviewed The video footage backmost astatine guidelines camp, he saw dozens of group stepping complete Mr Hassan.

"He was still alive. In The adjacent picture, location was conscionable 1 personification rubbing him, and I said: 'Why? Why haven't they brought him down?'"

"From my expertise of mountaineering - and I person been doing this 35 years - cipher Can show maine that this man couldn't person been helped.

"There are examples much and much astir group astatine 8,000m who thief group down. I cognize wherever he was found. I cognize what is The anticipation to bring him down. It's only snowfall slopes.

"There's nary reasonable mentation for this benignant of behaviour."

Austrian mountaineer Wilhelm Steindl, who was besides connected The upland that day, but turned backmost owed to The conditions, told Austria's Standard newspaper: "lt would beryllium unthinkable in The Alps.

"He was treated for illustration a second-class quality being. If he had been a Westerner, he would person been rescued immediately.

"No 1 felt responsible for him. What happened location is simply a disgrace. A surviving quality was near lying truthful that records could beryllium set."

Read much from Sky News:
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Mr Steindl has since visited Mr Hassan's family and has group up a GoFundMe page hoping to raise up to €100,000 (£86,500) to support them.

"He was 27 years aged and had a family pinch 3 young children," he said.

"When we recovered retired astir The family, we personally went to The upland colony to support The family.

"The mother is hopeless because she has nary financial means. In these distant villages, women are not knowledgeable and cannot gain money in The strictly Muslim country."

K2 is wide regarded arsenic The 1 of The hardest peaks in mountaineering - pinch 2018 figures showing that complete a 5th of attempted ascents extremity in death.

Experts opportunity K2 - The world's second-tallest upland supra oversea level - is moreover much vulnerable than Everest - The tallest - because little of The upland flattens off, and it is prone to avalanches and stone falls.