Inquiry into death of Pakistani porter at K2 clears Norwegian climber

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – An inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of a Pakistani porter, who fell from a narrow trail while attempting to ascend K-2 late last month, has cleared the Norwegian climber who was accused of walking past the dying porter.

“The inquiry has not fixed the responsibility of the porter’s death on any individual, including the Norwegian climber and her teammates,” said a member of the five-member inquiry committee that launched the probe earlier this month.

The probe stemmed from drone footage showing a Norwegian climber and her team walking past Mohammad Hassan, a high-altitude porter, who could be seen dangling upside down from a rope, and later died.

In the disturbing footage taken by two other climbers, Austrian Wilhelm Steindl and Philip Flaemig from Germany, whose ascent had been canceled that day owing to bad weather, Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali guide Tenjin “Lama” Sherpa could be seen walking past injured Hassan, instead of stopping and helping him.

They were on their way to setting the world record that would see them becoming the world’s fastest climbers by scaling the 14 highest peaks in the world in 92 days.

The disturbing episode did not end there as the drone footage also shows them stepping over the body of fallen Hassan, who later died. All of the team members can be seen just walking over it.

Harila, 37, rejected the accusation, contending she and her team “did everything we could for him at the time.”