Famous Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila denied accusations that she and her team climbed over an injured guide during her attempt to set a new world record while climbing the world’s second-highest mountain K2.
K2, which lies in the Karakoram Range, is a difficult and dangerous climb compared to other mountains, including Mount Everest.
Social media videos showed the porter, named Mohammed Hassan, lying injured as had fallen off a ledge and a group walking by him. Hassan died a few hours later.
Climbers crossing the most dangerous part of K2; The Bottleneck & the laying man in black & yellow dawn suit is reportedly Muhammad Hassan from Tissar Skardu, who died there and 130 climbers crossed over his body on ascent & descent. This is gift of commercial climbing #Climbing pic.twitter.com/m7J22AvqtJ— The Northerner (@northerner_the) August 5, 2023
Harila, however, told the BBC that she and her team did everything they could to help Hassan. Harila was attempting to secure a world record and become the fastest climber to scale all peaks above 8,000m, the BBC report said.
The incident happened on July 27 after Hassan fell from a very narrow path known as a bottleneck.
People who shared the video on social media show several climbers crossing Hassan’s body which lay lifeless, in a yellow and black mountaineering down suit.
Philip Flämig and Wilhelm Steindl, from Austria, took to social media and shared pictures of the incident. They showed other mountaineers climbing over Hassan’s body.
Other people from the mountaineering community as well as social media users of X, formerly Twitter, highlighted that mountaineering and climbing have now become commercial with very little regard for human life.
“I was really shocked. And I was really sad. I started to cry about the situation that people just passed him and there was no rescue mission,” Steindl was quoted as saying by the BBC.
He said one person was treating Hassan while others were headed towards the summit in a “heated, competitive summit rush”, according to Austrian newspaper Der Standard.
Harila took to Instagram to defend her actions and stop misinformation and alleged hate coming her way. She also spoke to outlets BBC and Sky News.
She denied accusations that Hassan was left to die. “We were trying to save him, we did everything we could for many hours,” Harila told the BBC.
Harila also pointed out that Hassan was not dressed properly for the climb and his stomach was exposed to snow and appeared not to have an oxygen supply.
She also said that the company that employed Hassan has questions to answer but also said that said no one was to blame for his death.
Harila also told news outlets that her team tried for around 90 minutes to fasten a rope to him and administer oxygen and hot water to him but they stopped because of an avalanche that went off next to them.
“How are you going to climb and traverse and carry a person? It’s not possible. We were trying to save him, we did everything we could for many hours… it’s a very, very narrow path,” Harila was quoted as saying by the BBC.
