GILGIT — Rescue officials have suspended the search operation for the remains of Pakistani mountaineer Sohail Sakhi and two foreign climbers who went missing after a deadly avalanche struck Broad Peak, citing the continued danger of further avalanches in the area.
Search and recovery teams spent eight days combing the mountain for the bodies of Sakhi, American climber Sarah Mallory Geis, and Nepalese climber Nawang Thindu Sherpa, but worsening conditions ultimately forced authorities to call off the effort, officials said Friday.
Ayaz Shigri, General Secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said a leg believed to belong to Geis had been located during the operation. Officials indicated the recovery mission would resume once weather conditions improve.
The three were among ten climbers swept away by an avalanche that struck the 8,051-metre peak — the world’s 12th highest — in Pakistan’s Karakoram range in Gilgit-Baltistan. The group, which included climbers from Nepal, Oman, China, the United States and Pakistan, was led by well-known mountaineer Nirmal Purja.
In the days following the disaster, recovery teams managed to retrieve and identify several of the victims, including Nepali climber Pur Bahadur Gurung and Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy, the first Omani woman to summit Mount Everest. The bodies of Purja and four other foreign climbers have since been flown to Islamabad for repatriation to their families.
Sakhi, who hailed from Hunza in Gilgit-Baltistan, was regarded as one of Pakistan’s strongest high-altitude climbers. He had summited Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest peak, earlier this year and had previously climbed K2, Nanga Parbat, and both Gasherbrum peaks without supplemental oxygen.
Recovery teams, drawn from Pakistani and Nepali climbing communities and supported by the Pakistan Army, have continued working under extremely difficult terrain and weather conditions to bring the remaining climbers’ remains down from the mountain.