ISLAMABAD: Russian-American climber Alex Goldfarb, who went missing on January 16 while climbing the 6,209-meter-high Pastore Peak in northern Pakistan, had been found dead, Karrar Haidri, the secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said on Tuesday.
Goldfarb had presumably fallen from a cliff on Pastore Peak, which is situated near Broad Peak (8,047m) and K2 (8,611m) in the Karakoram range.
“The body of Russian-American mountaineer Alex Goldfarb, who went missing on the Pastore Peak 6209-M, was found by a team of Pakistan Army on Monday after a day-long search,” Haidri told Arab News in a text message.
He said Goldfarb and Hungarian climber Zoltan Szlanko had planned to acclimatize on Pastore Peak, positioned as an easy “trekking peak,” before launching a “fast, alpine-style ascent of Broad Peak.”
“Alex is a man who never gives up,” Haidri said, sharing lines from an obituary written by Goldfarb’s son. “He moved to America just after the fall of the Soviet regime and began working illegally in a plastic factory and selling his plasma for cash. In just over a decade, he earned two PhDs and became a Professor of Medicine at Harvard.”
A team of climbers from Nepal on Saturday become the first mountaineers to successfully complete a winter attempt on the summit of K2, the world’s second tallest peak.
Located on the Pakistan China border, K2 is the only mountain over 8,000 meters that had not been summited in the winter.
The group were named as Nirmal Purja, Gelje Sherpa, Mingma David Sherpa, Mingma G, Sona Sherpa, Mingma Tenzi Sherpa, Pem Chhiri Sherpa, Dawa Temba Sherpa, Kili Pemba Sherpa, and Dawa Tenjing Sherpa.
Their success was marred by the death on the mountain of renowned Spanish climber Sergio Mingote, who fell down a crevasse as he attempted to make his way down to Base Camp. Around 49 climbers in several teams are on K2 making attempts on the summit, weather permitting.