Italian climbers out of danger in Pakistan -- report
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 02:07:00 07/21/2008
ISLAMABAD -- Two Italian climbers stranded on a mountain in Pakistan after their companion fell to his death, made contact by satellite telephone Sunday to say they were out of danger, ANSA news agency said.
"We are out of the danger zone and we are doing well, we are coming back down," Walter Nones and Simon Kehrer told rescuers based in Italy by telephone from northern Pakistan's Nanga Parbat peak, as quoted by ANSA.
"Tomorrow morning we will begin our descent, we have skiis," they said.
A third Italian mountaineer, Karl Unterkircher, died while trying to scale Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest mountain, leaving Nones and Kehrer stranded on the inhospitable peak.
A rescue helicopter spotted the two on Saturday after they made a distress call on Wednesday by satellite phone notifying of their 38-year-old companion's death.
Unterkircher, from northern Italy, fell into a deep crack on the surface of a glacier while climbing the peak at 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) above sea level.
It was not known when Unterkircher's body would be recovered, said the Italian embassy in Islamabad.
Nones and Kehrer said on Sunday they were setting out to find their base camp, situated at 6,500 meters altitude, according to Italian rescue services cited by ANSA.
The 8,125-metre peak has claimed numerous victims, including Guenther Messner, the brother of famed mountaineer Reinhold Messner.
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