Pakistani authorities have confirmed that 11 climbers, including Irishman Gerard McDonnell, were killed while attempting to descend the world’s second-tallest mountain K2.
Several of the climbers died when an ice wall collapsed and tore away the fixed lines they were relying on to return after reaching the summit of the 8,611 metre K2 on Friday.
Others succumbed in the freezing, oxygen-starved air, stranded at an altitude known as the "Death Zone".
"On K2, when they're missing they're dead," said Sher Khan, a retired colonel and vice president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, and one of Pakistan's most experienced climbers.
Several teams had massed on the mountain 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 metres.
The ice fall killed three Korean and two Nepali climbers, and left around a dozen more, exhausted from the ascent, stranded in the thin air above the Bottleneck.
"Anybody hit by an avalanche above the Bottleneck will be swept way down the South Face, and there's no way they'll ever find them," said Mr Khan.
Pakistan's Ministry of Tourism released a list of 11 climbers believed dead: Mr McDonnell, three
South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Serbia and Norway.
A Pakistan army helicopter airlifted frost-bitten survivors from the slopes of K2 today. The helicopter picked up two Dutch climbers and was due to return for some Italians elsewhere on the remote peak deep in the Karakoram range, bordering China.
One Swedish survivor, Fredrik Strang, described to US broadcaster CNN how people "froze to death" during the night. He also spoke of a sense of foreboding after a Serbian climber and a Pakistani plunged to their deaths on the ascent.
A total of 22 people, mostly foreigners, in eight different groups scaled K2's summit on Friday. Mr McDonnell (37), from Kilcornan, Co Limerick, was the first Irish person ever to summit the mountain.
Mr McDonnell's family last night issued a statement expressing their pride in his achievement, while President Mary McAleese and Minister for Sports Martin Cullen also paid tributes. Ms McAleese, who met Mr McDonnell earlier this year following a previous expedition of his to the South Pole, expressed her sympathies at the
"truly heartbreaking" events.
Mr McDonnell's brother JJ and girlfriend Annie Starky will fly to Pakistan in the coming days to meet the leader of the seven-man expedition, who was rescued suffering from frost bite.
Adventurer and family friend of the McDonnell's Pat Falvey said a meeting was being arranged in the Pakistani capital Islamabad for JJ and Ms Starky.
"Our thing at the moment is that some family members will be going to Pakistan hoping to meet up with the expedition leader of Ger's team, Wilco Van Rooijen. Arrangements will be made to have a debriefing session hopefully in Islamabad."
Questions will inevitably arise over whether the climbers' judgment was fatally clouded by desire to reach the summit, a condition known in mountaineering circles as "summit fever".
Some teams reached the top in darkness after 8.0pm on Friday, according to Nazir Sabir, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
Critics spoke of summit fever in the wake of the previous deadliest day in K2's history, August 13th, 1995, when six people fell or disappeared during a storm, including British female climber Alison Hargreaves.
Risks multiplied when small teams made simultaneous summit bids, Sher Khan said in comments that echoed his former climbing partner, the legendary Italian alpinist Reinhold Messner, who says commercial mountaineering had led to more fatalities.
K2 is considered technically more difficult to climb than Mount Everest, and while more fatalities have occurred on the latter, statistics show the risks of dying are far greater during the descent of K2 than for other mountains.
Only 189 climbers have reached the summit since the 1950s, compared with around 1,400 for Everest. More than 70 climbers have died on K2.