What happened on K2 on July 27th when climbers left a badly injured porter at more than 8000 meters? A conversation with Wilhelm Steindl, mountaineer and hotelier from Tyrol, who made the case public and is now, together with colleagues, collecting money for the dead man’s family.
Mr. Steindl, you and your colleague Philip Flämig shared the story of the Pakistani porter Mohammad Hassan, who died on K2, thereby setting off an avalanche. Did you expect that?
I knew that our material was explosive, but I couldn’t imagine the shock waves that publication in the Austrian “Standard” would trigger. Media around the world are now reporting on it.
Filmmaker Philip Flämig, with whom you were traveling, took pictures with a drone that document the accident. Badly injured, Hassan dies while dozens of climbers climb over him. An extreme fall at an extreme altitude? Or is it to be feared that there will be more such cases?