ISLAMABAD – Rafał Fronia, one of the Polish team of climbers attempting to be the first to conquer K2 in winter, has been airlifted to a hospital in Pakistan’s Skardu, after a falling rock broke his arm.
Fronia’s arm was broken two days ago. He received first aid at camp and needed to wait for better weather conditions so that a helicopter could take him for treatment.
He is the second climber in the expedition to be injured by falling rocks after Adam Bielecki’s nose was broken a few days ago.
The Polish expedition has decided to try a different route to the top of the world’s second tallest mountain, located on the Chinese-Pakistani border.
Janusz Majer, head of the Polish winter mountaineering programme, said the rocks falling from the face of the mountain rendered the shorter South-southeast spur too dangerous in winter.
The expedition’s management said that the Polish climbers would attempt to reach the summit via the Abruzzi Spur located on the Pakistani side of the mountain and taken by 75 percent of expeditions.
Both routes have been successfully used by Polish teams to reach K2’s 8611-metre altitude summit in summer.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/pakistan-saves-french-mountaineer-from-killer-mountain-after-daring-rescue-video/
Last month, a team of Polish climbers with support from the Pakistani military rescued stranded French mountaineer Elisabeth Revol from Nanga Parbat – the ‘killer mountain’. But they were unable to reach the second missing climber Polish national Tomek (Tomasz) Mackiewicz, who was declared deceased.
