By Kamran Haider

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A Pakistan army helicopter flew to rescue frost-bitten survivors from the slopes of K2 on Monday, leaving behind at least 10 dead climbers and more missing after an ice fall near the top of the world’s second highest mountain.

“We sent a helicopter to rescue six people, including four Dutch and two Italians,” said Major Farooq Firoz, an army spokesman in Gilgit, the main town in Northern Pakistan.

“They are at different spots at altitude of about 5,500 meters (18,000 feet).”

Accounts differ, but Sher Khan, a retired colonel and vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said that aside from nine international climbers a Pakistan high altitude porter had also died, and at least three more were missing, including another porter.

Hopes of finding them alive were faint, as they had been stranded at an altitude known as the “Death Zone” after an ice wall collapsed and tore away the fixed lines they were relying on to return after summiting the 8,611 peak on Friday.

“On K2, when they’re missing they’re dead,” said Khan, one of Pakistan’s most experienced climbers.

Several teams had massed on the peak for an assault on the summit. At least two climbers died during the ascent, then disaster struck during the descent at a steep gully known as the Bottleneck, above 8,200 meters.

The ice fall killed three Korean and two Nepali climbers, and left around a dozen more stranded above the Bottleneck, exhausted in the oxygen-starved air.  Continued…