The News
Friday 29 of March 2024

Italian envoy confirms deaths of 2 climbers in Pakistan


AP Photo,FILE - In this undated file photo, the snow-capped mountain of Nanga Parbat is seen in northern Pakistan.    Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo tweeted Saturday, March 9, 2019, with grief that search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard is over as search and rescue team headed by Alex Txikon has confirmed the silhouettes spotted at about 5900 meters are those of the two climbers who went missing at Nanga Parbat nick named “Killer Mountain.   (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)
AP Photo,FILE - In this undated file photo, the snow-capped mountain of Nanga Parbat is seen in northern Pakistan. Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo tweeted Saturday, March 9, 2019, with grief that search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard is over as search and rescue team headed by Alex Txikon has confirmed the silhouettes spotted at about 5900 meters are those of the two climbers who went missing at Nanga Parbat nick named “Killer Mountain. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Italy’s ambassador to Pakistan has confirmed the deaths of two missing European mountain climbers on Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-tallest mountain.

Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo tweeted Saturday that the search for Italian Daniele Nardi and Briton Tom Ballard ended after a team confirmed that silhouettes spotted at a height of about 5,900 meters (6,455 yards) were those of the two climbers.

Pakistani army helicopters with four rescuers had searched the mountain for days.

Nardi, 42, from near Rome, had attempted to scale Nanga Parbat in winter several times. Ballard, 30, was the son of British climber Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to scale Mount Everest alone. She died at age 33 descending the summit of K2.