Climber Ko Mi-young |
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
South Korean climber Ko Mi-young, 41, who went missing after a fall from a cliff in the Himalayas, was found dead in a ravine according to South Korean embassy in Pakistan, Sunday.
Korean diplomats in Islamabad said her death was confirmed by her teammates, although her body has yet to be retrieved.
Ko's body will be airlifted by helicopter on Monday, and her funeral will be discussed when her family arrives there, a source from the embassy said.
She was descending from the 8,126-meter-high Nanga Parbat after conquering the world's ninth-highest mountain, Saturday.
Reported missing for about five hours, she was spotted nearly one kilometer below the point where she fell at 10:30 p.m. Saturday (KST). She was found in the ravine some 100 meters away from the Messner route by a helicopter rescue team at 3.10 p.m., Sunday. However, the searching efforts were put on hold due to violent gusts of wind and a blizzard.
According to the agency, other climbers accompanying Ko witnessed her fall off the cliff and immediately reported it to the Pakistani rescue authorities.
``It happened on her way back to the base camp after conquering the mountain. We saw her fall from a cliff located at 6,200 meters,'' the agency quoted a member at the scene as saying.
Kim Jae-soo, head of the climbing team that included Ko, said, ``We don't rule out the worst-case scenario.''
According to Kim, Ko had been climbing for 15 hours and had conquered Nanga Parbat, but was struggling under adverse weather conditions on her way back without taking sufficient breaks.
Ko is one of the world's top five female climbers in the race to become the first female mountaineer to scale all 14 of the highest Himalayan mountains.
Her rivals are Gerlinde Kaltenbruner of Austria, Edurne Pasaban of Spain, Nives Morei of Italy, and Oh Eun-sun of Korea. She hoped to reach her goal this year.
Ko's fall came a day after rival Oh, 43, stood atop the 8,126-meter Nanga Parbat Friday, becoming the third woman to conquer 12 of the 14 Himalayan peaks.
Conquering the 14 highest mountains in the Himalayas has been a long-cherished dream for both Oh and Ko, as only 13 people in the world including South Korean climbers Um Hong-gil, Park Young-seok, and Han Wang-yong have done it. Oh plans to climb the remaining two peaks ― Hidden Peak, 8,068 meters; and Annapurna, 8,091 meters ― in the near future.
Born in 1966, Oh is the first Korean woman to climb the seven highest peaks on each of the world's seven continents.
pss@koreatimes.co.kr
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