Pakistani rescuers spot Italian mountain climbers

[July 19, 2008]  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani rescuers in a helicopter spotted two Italian mountaineers on one of the world's deadliest peaks, where a third Italian climber is believed to have died this week, a tour operator said Saturday.

The two climbers had been stranded on the Nanga Parbat mountain in northern Pakistan since July 16 when their colleague, renowned climber Karl Unterkircher, plunged into a crevasse.

Climbers Simon Kehrer and Walter Nones were alive and rescuers in an army helicopter dropped food and radio sets for them at an altitude of about 19,685 feet, said Rashid Ahmad, a spokesman for the company that helped organize the tour.

"The weather was better today, and the rescuers have spotted them," he said.

Ahmad said the rescuers would use the helicopter to bring the climbers back to their base camp where two Italian experts have arrived and are monitoring the rescue operation.

Efforts would also be made to find Unterkirche's body, but such an attempt is "highly unlikely" to succeed, he said.

Unterkircher, 37, was climbing a new route up Nanga Parbat on Wednesday when he fell.

His manager, Herbert Mussner, wrote Thursday on the climber's Web site that there was no more hope for his survival and "the tragedy is now a sad reality."

Nanga Parbat is the world's ninth-highest peak, and in the Urdu-language it means "Naked Mountain." It is also known as "Killer Mountain" as many climbers have died while trying scale it.

Unterkircher had clocked a world record for the fastest ascent, in 63 days, of Mount Everest and K2 without oxygen in 2004 and two years later he had also conquered the 20,470-foot peak of Mount Genyen in China.

[Associated Press; By MUNIR AHMAD]

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