Ishii Sports, the sponsor and home team of renowned Japanese alpinists Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima, says that Hiraide notified them yesterday that he and Nakajima planned to do “a one-day reconnaissance to the upper part of Camp 2.”
Two hours later, the home team learned that Hiraide, 45, and Nakajima, 39, had fallen from around 7,000m. They did not elaborate on how they knew this. Ischii Sports also confirmed what everyone already knew, that the two unnamed Japanese climbers in trouble were Hiraide and Nakajima.
The two elite climbers were trying to open a new alpine-style route on the highly committing West Face of K2. Bad weather had delayed them for weeks, and they were anxious to make a last-minute try.
Yesterday, after news of the accident, Pakistan Army helicopters flew to K2 from Skardu and spotted the two motionless Japanese climbers. The helicopter could not land in that high, dangerous spot. It was clear that a ground rescue effort had to be organized. Ishii Sports, in cooperation with the Japanese embassy in Pakistan, is trying to organize a ground rescue team.
K2. Photo: Ischii Sports
The condition of Hiraide and Nakajima remains unknown. If they are alive, time is of the essence, as Georgian alpinist Archil Badriashvili points out. Their tracker information and more helicopter flights over the downed figures might reveal something, he suggests. Currently, sherpas and many other climbers in the area are descending from the summit of K2 via the normal route and are not immediately available.
