CNN Helicopter rescues frostbitten K-2 climbers

[Daniel]

Helicopter rescues frostbitten K-2 climbers

 

(CNN) -- Two Dutch climbers who survived a deadly ice avalanche on K2, the world's second highest mountain on the Pakistan-China border, were airlifted to a Pakistani hospital on Monday, the team's spokesman told CNN.

Twenty-two climbers, mostly foreigners, reached K-2's summit Friday before a deadly avalanche struck.

The two survivors, including Norit expedition leader Wilco Van Rooijen, had been "stuck up high on the mountain" since the avalanche on Friday, team spokesman Michel Schuurman said.

The avalanche struck down the safety ropes that the climbers planned to use to descend the mountain, he said.

"They had to descend without any safety lines and in that descent we know that some climbers have slipped down and their whereabouts are unknown," Schuurman said.

According to Fredrik Strang, who assisted in the rescue efforts, the avalanche killed 11 climbers from different expeditions who had come together to make it to the peak of K2, which many climbers consider even more technically challenging than world's tallest peak, Mt. Everest.

Strang said Sunday the death toll was not expected to rise, because it was not believed anyone else was missing.

The site of the accident, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) up the mountain, is what climbers call the "Dead Zone," because the body would never recover if stuck in such freezing conditions with so little oxygen, said Pat Falvey, a climber in Ireland who is in touch with the climbers and posting updates online for one of the climbing expeditions.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/04/pakistan.climbers/index.html