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Top Climber Presumed Dead, Found Alive by Drone

Top U.K. climber Rick Allen was presumed dead after it was thought he fell to his death on Broad Peak in Pakistan during a solo climb.

A drone that was controlled from a pilot at the K2 base camp located Allen high on the 13 highest peak, far off route of his desired new line.

A Japanese team member though he saw a pack at about 7,500 metres nearly two days after Allen was presumed dead.

Bartek Bargiel is a drone pilot who is recording his brother Andrzej’s attempt to ski K2. He used his drone to help locate Allen’s location.

David Roeske wrote on Instagram below, “Yesterday just as Fredrik Strang and I were about to leave after a night at Camp 3 (7,000 m), we heard a radio call that a missing climber needed rescue high on the mountain. He had fallen off an ice cliff, and been solo on the mountain for 36 hours without a stove to melt water.

“We headed up the mountain with rope, water, and medicine looking for him and were later joined by Tenji Sherpa from Summit Climb. With the help of the drone pilot we were able to eventually locate him in very dangerous terrain — a fall would’ve taken him either down a crevasse or all the way to the base of the mountain — and the three of us got him down and into a tent at Camp 3 just as it was getting dark.”

Allen was originally on the attempt with a team, most of whom had bailed. You can read more about it here.

Some good news from a mountain range shadowed by deaths for the past few months.

A post shared by David Roeske (@roeske) on

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