Himalayas have once again staged "The Deadly Altitude"! In the past weekend, a Korean mountaineering team suffered a severe blizzard during the expedition, and all five members and four local guides were killed, setting the worst mountaineering accident in Nepal since 2015. Kim Chang-ho, a professional mountaineer who holds several South Korean mountaineering records, is also among the victims. South Korean President Moon Jae-in expressed condolences to the victims and their families, and highly praised the mountaineering team's adventure spirit.
The Korea Times reported on the 15th that this Korean mountaineering team embarked on the journey on the 11th of last month, preparing to explore a new path to the summit at the Gurga Peak, which is rarely visited by the Himalayas, and named it "Road to South Korea". This itinerary is expected to last about 45 days, which is far more difficult than ordinary climbers who "sightseeing and checking in" on Mount Everest. On the 12th of this month, a blizzard broke out on the Gurga Peak, sweeping the mountaineering team's base camp at an altitude of 3,500 meters. Members soon disappeared in the storm.
13 early in the morning of 13, Nepalese authorities sent helicopters to search the mountains and dispatched another police team to hike to the scene of the incident. Although the body of the victim was found by the helicopter that day, the two rescue teams in the air and on the ground were unable to get close to each other due to the snowstorm. On the 14th, the weather improved and the rescue team began to transport the bodies of the victims back one after another. The South Korean Herald reported that the bodies of five Korean players will arrive in South Korea as early as the 17th.
▲ Rescue personnel transported the bodies of the dead mountaineer (photo from China Daily)
CNN on the 15th said that the media is unable to restore the horrific scenes encountered by the mountaineering team during their lifetime, but it is certain that the storm was particularly violent. According to a helicopter pilot of the search and rescue team, the mountaineering team's camp was completely destroyed, like "being bombed". Judging from the location of the body of the deceased, only one victim died near the base camp, and the other 8 bodies were all in the valley and had multiple fractures on their bodies. Public opinion speculated that they were blown down from a steep slope and fell and died. The Himalaya Times of Nepal said that in addition to the local guide, there were actually 6 people in the South Korean mountaineering team. The only survivor did not participate in the climbing due to illness and recuperated in a village far away from the base camp, and escaped by chance.
AFP said that the Gurga Peak is 7193 meters above sea level and was first summited by a Japanese mountaineering team in 1969. Because the height and fame are incomparable to other peaks in Nepal, this mountain has been rarely visited for a long time, with the total number of people reaching the top in half a century; in the 22 years since 1997, no one has reached the top. In contrast, the popular Mount Everest has received mountaineers from all over the world, and more than 8,000 people have climbed the top to "check in". However, according to insiders, Gurga Peak is full of gullies, cliffs are everywhere, and the mountain wind is strong, so it is no less than other well-known peaks in the Himalayas.
▲The picture is a screenshot of the Nepalese media's report on the death incident. (Yonghap News Agency/Screenshot of the official website of the Himalaya Times
CNN said that the captain of the mountaineering team in the dead, Kim Chang-ho is a well-known professional mountaineer in South Korea. As early as 2013, he was the first South Korea to conquer the 14 highest peaks in the world. The International Mountaineering Federation once awarded his Asian Golden Ice Axe Award to reward his extraordinary achievements in the field of mountaineering. This honor is called "the Oscar of the mountaineering world" by CNN. Kim Chang-ho's mountaineering team is famous in the industry for "clean" and "high quality": this extreme sports not only takes time, but also requires a lot of equipment and supplies, but his team rarely leaves waste on the mountain. Discard equipment or domestic waste. Before climbing Gurga Peak, the team he led was well established and had clear division of labor. There were dedicated personnel responsible for the climbing equipment, food, medicine and shooting. Unfortunately, after the mountaineering team was killed, the outside world could not confirm the specific climbing progress of the team.
This major accident attracted the attention of the governments of Nepal and South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in recently posted a memorial on Facebook, highly praised the mountaineering team's adventure spirit. He said: "A blizzard has always claimed the lives of nine climbers, but the courage and unremitting spirit they showed in the exploration of the new road will surely last forever."It is understood that Moon Jae-in himself is also a mountaineering enthusiast. In his early years, he made a special trip to Nepal to experience hiking in the Himalayas.
The Himalaya Times said that this is the largest mountaineering accident with the largest number of casualties in Nepal in recent years. A few years ago, avalanches broke out in Mount Everest , and in 2014, 16 Sherpa guides were unfortunately killed; in 2015, the major earthquake in Nepal once again affected Mount Everest, causing 19 climbers to die in the avalanche.
"Why do you have to open up a new path? "KBS TV reported on the 15th that another famous Korean mountaineer, Park Young-suk, was also unfortunately killed in 2011 when he opened a new climbing path in the Himalayas. Therefore, many people are puzzled why these people have to open a new climbing path? In this regard, Korean alpine climbing enthusiasts gave the answer, saying, "For climbers, it doesn't matter which mountain they climb or how many times they climb. What is important is how and paths you use to climb the top of the mountain, focusing on innovation in the path and the ability to constantly break through the limits of the human body. "But some mountaineering experts also remind that even though Nepal's mountaineering tourism industry has become increasingly mature, climbers still need to be "respectful" of nature, because the mountain climate environment is too uncontrollable, which is unpredictable.
