By TAKASHI NARAZAKI/ Staff Writer
July 31, 2024 at 15:10 JST
Kazuya Hiraide, left, and Kenro Nakajima pose for a photo at the Aconcagua base camp in Argentina in January 2019. (Motoki Kaneko)
Rescue efforts have been called off for two famed Japanese mountain climbers and photographers who fell from K2, the world’s second-highest peak, in Pakistan.
Ishii Sports Co., which Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima are affiliated with, cited difficulties approaching the accident site in a statement posted on its website on July 30.
Hiraide, 45, and Nakajima, 39, have not shown any movement since they fell from a height of 7,000 meters on the 8,611-meter K2 on July 27, the climbing gear store operator said.
“We cannot approach the site even from the ground due to the high risk of (the route) collapsing and the possibility of rescuers being involved in a secondary accident,” Ishii Sports said.
The company said it ended the rescue operation after gaining consent from the climbers’ families.
While a helicopter search identified the location of the two men, the aircraft was unable to land due to the high altitude and slope angle of the site.
Ishii Sports had been considering a ground-based rescue operation.
The company said it will honor the climbers’ achievements.
Hiraide and Nakajima are considered world-class athletes and have each received the prestigious French award Pioelts d’Or, known as the Academy Award of mountaineering, multiple times.
At the time of their fall from K2, they were attempting to be the first to scale the mountain from its west face, considered the most difficult route to the summit.
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