K2 Mountaineers Deny Ignoring Dying Porter

Facts

• A Norwegian mountaineer has denied allegations that her team climbed over a dying porter to reach the top of the K2 Mountain in Pakistan to secure a new world record.¹
• In July, Kristin Harila and Nepalese Tenjin Sherpa became the world's fastest climbers to scale all 14 peaks of the world's over 8K meters (26K feet) mountains after climbing K2, the world's second-highest peak.²
• Images have now emerged appearing to show climbers clambering past porter Mohammed Hassan, who fell off a sheer edge at the height of about 8.2K meters on a ridge during Harila's ascent.³
• However, Harila has denied walking by dying Hassan, insisting her team did everything possible to save him, but the conditions were too dangerous to rescue him. She added that Hassan appeared not to have an oxygen supply or suitable cold-weather clothing.⁴
• Meanwhile, the Pakistan Alpine Club — the nation's governing body for mountaineering — announced a probe into Hassan's death on Saturday.⁵
• K2 is widely seen as one of the world's most treacherous peaks, with a fatality rate of around 19% compared to Everest's 6.5%, according to approximations.⁶

Sources: ¹The Telegraph, ²CNN, ³The Guardian, ⁴Times, ⁵The Washington Post, and ⁶Daily Mail.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Daily Mail. What happened to Hassan so that records could be set is scandalous. The porter, driven by the prospects of pursuing a better life for his family, partook in someone else's dreams and lost his life in the process. While the details are murky due to opposing accounts, images don't lie, leaving all to wonder if Hassan would still be alive had the mountaineers shown empathy instead of continuing their bid for glory.
• Narrative B, as provided by 9 News.  Despite Hassan not being part of her team, Harila did everything to revive the porter. K2, also known as Savage Mountain, is more technically challenging than Mount Everest and is the deadliest of all the major summits. All mountaineers are supposed to climb treacherous mountains at their own risk. Directing an avalanche of hate toward Harila is uncalled for, as while Hassan's death was tragic, it was no one's fault.
• Narrative C, as provided by The National. Hassan's tragic death on K2 brings the debate back to the conditions of sherpas and porters in the high-altitude Himalayas and Karakoram region. The fact can't be ignored that not only was there no organized rescue operation, but he was left to scale the treacherous peak without adequate equipment. With no training academy and subpar gear, this tragedy is clearly a failure of the government, which appears to treat its local mountaineers as dispensable, second-class citizens.