Pakistan suspended a helicopter search on Sunday (Sept 4) for two American climbers who went missing six days ago while trying to summit a mountain in the country’s far north.
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Jonathan Thesenga, whose company sponsors one of the climbers, says the families of Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson chose to end search efforts Saturday. During the summer, scores of climbers from all over the world attempt to scale various mountains in its northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan, near the Chinese border.Dempster and Adamson began their ascent of the north face of Ogre-II peak on Aug 21.
Experts said the chances of finding the two were extremely slim, according to Jonathan Thesenga, a representative for one of Dempster’s sponsors, Black Diamond Equipment.
Dempster, 33, and Adamson, 34, both from Utah, are two of the most accomplished alpinists of their generation.
Known as the Ogre II, this 23,000-foot mountain is considered amongst the most hard mountains on the planet to climb. Dempster had won the prestigious Piolet d’Or alpine climbing award twice.
This undated photo shows climber Scott Adamson. This news story is related to Print/147941-Helicopter-search-for-missing-US-climbers-suspended/ – breaking news, latest news, pakistan ne. The choppers made several visits to the area where the duo was last seen but were unable to locate them. It is part of a grouping of mountains called Baintha Brakk.
Four guides – known as porters – have climbed up a nearby glacier behind where Dempster and Adamson were and are hoping to look for them with binoculars.
The peak has only been reached once before, by a Korean team in 1980s via less hard route, Thesenga said.
They almost died making the same attempt previous year in this spot, Thesenga said.
Dempster and Adamson attempted to summit this peak past year and barely survived a 400 foot fall onto a glacier. Dempster and Adamson had originally planned on spending five days climbing and descending the mountain.
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In a recent video Dempster said: “On that journey, you go through the feeling of fear and to an eventual outcome”.
