ISLAMABAD
\nThree foreign climbers are missing and feared dead on Pakistan\u2019s treacherous Karakorum mountain range in the country\u2019s far north, an official said Thursday.
\nPakistan is home to five of the world\u2019s 14 \u201csuper peaks\u201d \u2014 those over 8,000 metres (26,246 feet) high \u2014 and the climbing season is currently in full swing.
\nA senior government official from the Gilgit Baltistan tourism department told AFP that Canadian Richard Cartier and Australian Matthew Eakin were missing on K2, the world\u2019s second-highest mountain, while Briton Gordon Henderson was lost climbing Broad Peak, the twelfth-highest.
\n\u201cWe cannot declare them dead until the bodies are found,\u201d the official said.
\n\u201cWe pray we find them alive, but the chances are very slim.\u201d
\nHenderson, a wing commander with Britain\u2019s Royal Air Force, went missing on July 19 on the 8,051-metre Broad Peak, the armed force said on its verified Facebook page.
\n\u201cOur thoughts are with Wing Commander Henderson\u2019s family, friends and colleagues at this dreadful time,\u201d it said.
\nEakin and Cartier have been missing since the weekend on K2, which is nicknamed the \u201cSavage Mountain\u201d for its high level of difficulty.
\nRecords have tumbled this season, according to the Pakistan Alpine Club, with over 140 people summiting the 8,611-metre K2 \u2014 including 20 women.
\nUntil this year, it had been scaled just 425 times, whereas Everest \u2014 the world\u2019s highest \u2014 had been conquered by more than 6,000 people since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the top in 1953.
\nA video shared on social media by Nepali climber Mingma Gyalje earlier this week showed a long queue of tethered climbers pushing upwards on K2.
\n\u201cThis is the scariest part,\u201d he said in an accompanying caption on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
\nK2 earned its nickname because of its punishing conditions \u2014 in winter, winds can blow at more than 200 kilometres per hour (125 miles per hour), and temperatures drop to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 Fahrenheit).
\nLast week, Sanu Sherpa, from Nepal, became the first person to complete the double summit of all 14 super peaks after he reached the top of Gasherbrum II in Pakistan.
\nNorwegian Kristin Harila, meanwhile, is attempting to break the record for climbing all 14 super peaks in the fastest time, taking on Nepali adventurer Nirmal Purja\u2019s record of six months and six days.
\nThe 36-year-old scaled K2 on Thursday \u2014 the eighth peak of the challenge \u2014 on day 70 of her pursuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Three foreign climbers are missing and feared dead on Pakistan\u2019s treacherous Karakorum mountain range in the country\u2019s far north, an official said Thursday. Pakistan is home to five of the world\u2019s 14 \u201csuper peaks\u201d \u2014 those over 8,000 metres (26,246 feet) high \u2014 and the climbing season is currently in full swing. A senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-274277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n