Russian-American climber found dead on Pakistan's Pastore Peak

ISLAMABAD – The body of a Russian-American mountaineer, who had gone missing some days ago, has been found near Pastore Peak, which he was trying to scale.

Gilgit Tourist Police tweeted on Tuesday that Alex Goldfarb was found dead near the world's 12th highest peak, not far from K2, the world's second highest mountain.

Apparently, Goldfarb had pushed on solo after his Hungarian teammate Zoltan Szlanko tried to persuade him to delay the expedition due to harsh weather. They were supposed to scale the nearby Broad Peak in the Karakoram Range on the Chinese border.

#BroadPeak: Tragic News:
Alex Goldfarb has been found lifeless in #Pastore Peak, presumably having fallen off the mountain. The legends @john_snorri @ali_sadpara participated in rescue mission Alex, leaving their own #K2winter2021 expedition
Our thoughts are with Alex's family. pic.twitter.com/Lfqq8GGNfZ

— Tourist Police Gilgit-Baltistan (@GBPolice1422) January 18, 2021

"We are deeply saddened to have lost our climbing partner and friend," said Laszlo Pinter, spokesman for the Broad Peak Winter Expedition 2021. "The helicopter search mission has found his body on Pastore Peak where he is presumed to have fallen off the mountain."

Pakistani mountaineer Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who was part of the rescue team said efforts were underway to bring Goldfarb's body down with the help of Pakistani and foreign mountaineers. Earlier, Pakistan Army helicopters launched a search operation to trace the US climber.

Goldfarb's death comes after Spanish climber Sergi Mingote was discovered dead on K2 earlier this. Meanwhile, within this same week, 10 Nepali climbers successfully scaled K2 for the first time in winter.

Goldfarb was attempting a winter ascent of Broad Peak with Hungarian Zoltan Szlanko as part of a two-man non-sponsored expedition.

The pair were to scale the 6,209-metre Pastore Peak to acclimatise to the harsh Karakoram winter. Pastore Peak (6,209 metres) is situated near Broad Peak (8,047m) and K2 (8,611m) in the Karakoram range.

Szlanko, an experienced climbing instructor and mountaineer rescuer, deemed conditions too dangerous and insisted both should return, Pinter said, but Goldfarb pressed ahead.

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