Danger of K2 ‘meant climbers had to split up’ as porter was dying

A mountaineer whose team were accused of stepping over a dying porter to conclude a record-breaking ascent of K2 has said the dangers posed by the mountain meant they had to decide to split up. Kristin Harila, a Norwegian mountaineer who last month became the fastest climber to scale the 14 highest peaks in the world – doing so in just 92 days – was forced to defend claims that her team left father-of-three Muhammad Hassan to die on the mountain. The 27-year-old porter from Pakistan was part of a separate team climbing K2 ahead of Ms Harila’s, who slipped on a narrow ledge before becoming tangled in ropes and eventually dying on the mountain on 27 July. Ms Harila has this week condemned the spread of ‘hatred’ and ‘misinformation’, following claims from two men present that day on K2 that her team had treated Hassan like ‘a second-class human being’. Speaking to Sky News, the former professional skier said members of her team had spent hours with Hassan, giving him their oxygen, water, and trying to keep him warm. But having received that their rope fixing team were having problems up ahead following an avalanche, they decided it would be safer to split up and for her to continue the descent, rather than potentially block the narrow passage and impede any rescue attempts. ‘This is probably the most dangerous part of K2, and K2 is probably the most dangerous mountain of all the [8,000-metre peaks]. ‘We know it’s very risky to stay there, but we had to try to save him,’ Ms Harila said. After receiving radio messages of problems with avalanches, ‘we had to make a decision to split up’, said the mountaineer, adding: In ‘this place, it’s a very, very narrow trail’ and ‘impossible’ for 10 people to help, ‘because [there] is only room for one behind and one in front’.