Atanas Skatov dies during climbing expedition on Pakistan’s K2

A Bulgarian mountaineer Atanas Skatov fell to his loss of life throughout an expedition on Pakistan’s K2, his crew stated Friday, the second individual to die on the world’s second highest mountain in weeks.

Seven Summit Treks — a trekking firm main the expedition — stated Atanas Skatov, 42, fell as he was altering ropes throughout his descent to basecamp.

“[It] appears some errors occurred and he fell down. We had fastened the mountain with new ropes” which weren’t damaged, Seven Summit Treks stated in a press release.

The Alpine Membership of Pakistan additionally confirmed the incident, saying his physique was later recovered and flown by a Pakistani army helicopter to the close by metropolis of Skardu.

“We pay homage to the energy and spirit of our climber — his feat and his relentless will to (attain) the highest won’t ever be forgotten!” the Bulgarian overseas ministry stated in a press release.

The Bulgarian Atanas Skatov died after suffering a significant fall when he descended to Camp 3 K2, after a night with very bad weather conditions. pic.twitter.com/tnqFkf066C

— Moises Lopez (@chapoisat) February 5, 2021

Atanas Skatov is the second climber to die on K2’s slopes this season after a Spanish mountaineer fell to his loss of life final month.

A 3rd climber — Russian-American Alex Goldfarb — additionally died on a close-by mountain throughout an acclimatising mission forward of a bid to scale Broad Peak in January.

Skatov’s loss of life comes simply weeks after a crew of Nepali climbers made historical past on K2 once they turned the primary to scale it in winter.

K2 is named the “Savage Mountain” due to its punishing situations: winds can blow at greater than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour), and temperatures can drop to minus 60 levels Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).

With Pakistan’s borders open and with few different locations to go, this winter an unprecedented 4 groups totalling round 60 climbers have converged on the mountain, greater than all earlier expeditions put collectively.

Not like Mount Everest, which has been topped by 1000’s of climbers younger and previous, K2 is far much less travelled.