Left to die at K2: 50 climbers refuse to help high-altitude porter Mohammad Hassan

Pakistani porter Muhammad Hassan was left to die at the world’s second highest mountain K2, also known as the killer mountain, during a recent expedition as more than fifty climbers walked around him in their own bid for glory.

As the footage of the incident emerged, mountaineering community is shocked that nobody tried to help the stricken 27-year-old as they left him to die while continuing their own personal bid for glory.

Instead of helping him, his fellow climbers went up the side of the mountain past him without offering any help.

Hassan, a high-altitude porter from Pakistan and father of three who worked for Lela Peak Expedition, perished on July 27 when an avalanche forced him over a ledge while ascending the 28,300-foot K2 mountain.

This image, used extensively in Pakistan media news reports, is believed to show Mohammed Hassan.

The footage shows people physically climbing over Hassan as he lies helpless in the deep snow.

It appears that just one person ended up helping him, an unknown rescuer who managed to keep him conscious for a while before he died of his injuries. There was no rescue operation to help the young man.

Fellow climber Wilhelm Steindl, who also participated in the climb but had returned to the base camp earlier due to the dangerous conditions, told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he was sickened by the inaction of the fellow climbers.

Endless line of climbers at the traverse on K2, and the lonely figure of Muhammad Hassan in the middle. — A stunning number of climbers at the traverse, in front and behind Hassan, marked with a circle. Seconds later, the drone flew nearer and caught a Pakistani climber rubbing Hassan’s chest, while Hassan was still moving. Frame from drone footage by Philip Flaemig for Servus TV

Climbers in line on a snow steep slope moving past Muhammad Hassan. — A close-up shows climbers moving past Hassan. Frame from drone footage by Philip Flaemig for Servus TV.

‘It was a very heated, competitive race to the top. What happened there is scandalous.

Silvia Azdreeva, a climber from Bulgaria who was on the expedition when Hassan died, said on Facebook that climbing K2 is not for the faint of heart: ‘On K2 there is no one to save you that fast, you’ll have to wait for days if something happens to you.

‘This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character.’

Another climber Luis Soriano called the event a tragedy.

“I do not know how there was no attempt to rescue him, although he was in a very complex place, right on the trail in the middle of the traverse under the Great Serac,” Luis Soriano said. “People literally had to jump over him on their way to the summit. I passed by that place on the following day and the body was there. A tragedy.”

“There is no rescue team on K2 and the Liaison Officer can do nothing,” Lakpa Sherpa said. “Before his accident, some sherpas [in the rope-fixing team] told him to go back many times, because his climbing equipment and clothes were very poor, but he didn’t listen and followed the other climbers. The weather was very bad and most of the climbers were approaching the summit of K2. I guess, once he got injured, he may not have been able to move…so from the Bottleneck, it’s very difficult to bring him down.”