An avalanche struck Broad Peak around midday on Thursday and cut off contact with a 10-member international climbing team led by Nirmal Purja. Rescue efforts were under way on Friday, but there was still no immediate confirmation of casualties or survivors.
The missing group includes five Nepali climbers, Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi from Hunza, Omani mountaineer Nathira, American climber Mallory Geis and Chinese climber Wang. The Alpine Club of Pakistan said the team had reportedly been out of communication since the avalanche, a silence that has turned a mountain incident into a race against weather and altitude.
Major General Irfan Arshad said the Alpine Club of Pakistan was coordinating with government authorities and rescue agencies. The club said helicopter support and available rescue resources were being mobilized at the earliest opportunity, subject to weather and operational conditions, while Mingma David Sherpa said a search helicopter was expected to reach the area early Friday, weather permitting.
Broad Peak is the world's 12th-highest mountain and lies on the Pakistan-China border near K2. That location matters because the Karakoram climbing season was at its peak and expeditions were also attempting K2, Gasherbrum I and Broad Peak, putting more teams on the same high-altitude routes even as the weather turned dangerous.
The unresolved question is whether the missing climbers can be reached before conditions close the window for a search. Purja had climbed Pakistan's Gasherbrum II without supplemental oxygen nine days earlier, but this emergency has shifted attention from a summit success to a rescue effort that now depends on helicopters, weather and luck in the high Karakoram.
