Karakorum 2009: Climber Stuck on Latok I

Latoks 1though5
An urgent appeal went out to climbers over the weekend with ExWeb helping to lead the charge. It seems that Spanish climber Oscar Perez has become stranded above 6500m on Latok I, and as of this writing, there is no update on his status. His team was requesting that any high altitude climbers who could aid in a rescue contact them so that they could organize a team on the mountain. Oscar’s climbing partner, Alvaro Novellon, is already in BC suffering from frostbite.

Oscar and Alvaro were attempting to scale the unclimbed north face on Latok I in alpine style, and estimated that it would take them 7-8 days to complete. It is unclear at this point as to what exactly happened while they were climbing the 7145 meter peak, which is located in northern Pakistan. Latok I is the first of four summits in a cluster on the Panmah Muztagh region of the Karakorum.

When ExWeb posted their story a few days back, Oscar’s team hadn’t had contact with him in three days. Everyone is still holding out hope that he is alive and well, but perhaps his radio is not functioning properly or has dead batteries. Hopefully we’ll have an update on the situation soon, but the following contact information is offered in case anyone in the region can lend a hand:

team@explorersweb.com or

Essar Karim:
ADVENTURE TOURS PAKISTAN
P.O.Box # 465,
G-9 Post Office
Islamabad
Pakistan
Phone # +92-51- 2260820, 2252759
Fax # +92-51-2264251
Email: info@atp.com.pk, atp.global@gmail.comwww.atp.com.pk

Lets keep our fingers crossed on this one folks!

Kraig Becker

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