Rodrigo Raineri of Brazil died yesterday in a paragliding accident near Askole, in the Baltoro area.
Raineri, whose identity was published by the Dawn newspaper, was an experienced pilot who had been training in the Chamonix area before flying to Pakistan two weeks ago.
In Pakistan, he met ace pilots Antoine Girard and Veso Ovcharov. However, each member of the team operated autonomously, as Ranieri explained: “Each of us has a satellite locator, each one decides what they want to do, but we are a cohesive team and ready for action if someone needs help or rescue.”
In his latest post, Raineri recalls a difficult flying day in which he made some mistakes — he was still recovering from an intestinal infection. He took a tricky evening flight with nearly no thermal activity. He was lucky to get into a current that let him soar to 6,000m and reach Lady Finger Peak. Check his post here:
Rumors swirl
Rumors of a fatality started yesterday, raising concern among those related to the significant number of paragliders currently in the Baltoro area. Girard’s team recently left for the upper Baltoro, and details of what happened remain unclear. Sources in Pakistan spoke of several pilots soaring from Askole toward K2 Base Camp and that one of them somehow hit a rock while landing.
Waliullah Falahi, deputy commissioner at Shigar region, told Dawn that the paraglider had no permit for the activity, but we will wait for confirmation from the outfitter and Girard’s team.
Raineri was a three-time Everest summiter and guide on the Seven Summits. He climbed the formidable south face of Aconcagua with Vitor Negrete.
