APD | Pakistani pilots rescue foreign mountaineers stuck at Broad Peak

**By APD writer Muhammad Sohail **

Pakistan Army Aviation pilots on Sunday successfully rescued two foreign mountain climbers from the country’s northwest Broad Peak, Baltoro Glacier, said a military statement.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan army’s media wing, said that the climbers including Donald Allen Bowie from the United States and Lotta Henriikka Nakyva from Finland were part of an international winter expedition attempting to summit Broad Peak but were stranded en route due to sickness.

Later on, both climbers were taken to the country’s capital Islamabad where they would get through medical checkups before leaving for their homelands.

Last week, the French military conferred medals on the Pakistan Army Aviation pilots who rescued a French mountaineer from the Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest peak, in a daring late-night rescue mission in 2018.

French mountaineer Elisabeth Revol was rescued in January 2018 from the Nanga Parbat, known as the killer mountain, in extreme weather at an altitude of 7,200 meters.

However, her Polish climbing partner Tomasz Mackiewicz was not as lucky as the rescuers had to call off the search due to harsh weather conditions with the temperature at 60 degrees below freezing point at the 8,126-metre-tall Nanga Parbat.

Pakistan, having five of the above 8,000 meters peaks in the world, has been the focus of some of the most outstanding achievements in the world of mountaineering. There are more than 100 peaks in Pakistan open for mountaineering currently.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)