Pakistani climber stuck on Nanga Parbat shares his ordeal

DW (English)

Pakistani mountaineer Asif Bhatti was stranded at the 8,126-meter-tall Nanga Parbat — the world's ninth-highest mountain — due to snow blindness. An Azerbaijani mountaineer helped him reach the base camp.

Transcript

00:00 I was all alone, I had to climb all the way from camp 3 to camp 4 the whole night.

00:04 The temperature was around -15 to -20.

00:08 And in this scenario, a snow blizzard appeared due to which I was not able to have a clear

00:17 vision.

00:18 So that is why certain problems appear like snow blindness and frostbite and I have decided

00:25 to quit my expedition.

00:47 At camp 4, I contacted Base Camp and asked for help, but unfortunately, for the next

00:55 three days there was no help and I had to descend down all alone.

01:01 And luckily, a foreign climber, my friend Mr. Israfil was there, he was from Azerbaijan,

01:08 and he helped me to descend down from camp 4 up to camp 2 and then help appeared at camp

01:13 2 and then I descended down to Base Camp.

01:24 Due to certain reasons, there is no qualified rescue crew in Pakistan.

01:31 If we compare ourselves to the Nepali environment, they have qualified rescue crew, so they have

01:38 qualified heli operators and immediately when there is a certain issue, they approach over

01:45 there and through heli or through ground operation, they try their best to approach to the patient

01:54 in minimum time.

01:55 Whereas in Pakistan, we have no qualified high altitude porters that are meant for the

02:01 rescue operation.

02:02 The mountaineering is the major factor to run the economy of Nepal.

02:16 Pakistan has more challenging peaks and the whole world is more interested to come to

02:21 Pakistan.

02:22 So, if the major people or lot of people come to the Pakistan, they can contribute towards

02:31 the economy of Pakistan as we have a lot of hazards, financial hazards, we have a lot

02:38 of pressure from IMF and other donors.

02:43 So if we pay focus on this side, we can provide a lot of cushion for government's issues,

02:54 especially in economic sense.

02:55 (upbeat music)

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