Early on Aug 1, 2008, climbers were killed in an ice avalanche on the world’s second-largest peak, Pakistan’s K2 (an 8,611-meter or 28,253-foot mountain) after 22 climbers, in 8 different expeditions from around the world, had come together.

It is the deadliest incident at K2 since 1939.

Several people are still missing while two have been rescued (airlifted by helicopter this morning and sent to hospital for severe frostbite treatment), others are presumed on their way down on the China side and one (exhausted and frostbitten) is stranded at 7200m (and expected to be brought down tonight by four high-altitude porters).

Although the exact number of dead is confusing because of conflicting reports, Nazir Sabir, a celebrated Pakistani climber who scaled K2 in 1981 and was the recent Expeditions chief, said there are at least 11 mountaineers feared dead: 1 Norwegian, 1 Irishman, 2 Pakistanis, 1 Frenchman (the missing leader), 1 Serbian, 3 Korean, and 2 Nepalese citizens…one of whom plummeted off a 300-meter cliff.

That makes the number of deaths on the mountain somewhere in the 70’s (perhaps 77).

The climbers were coming down at dawn, in the dark, with little oxygen—a very, very dangerous situation in itself. When a fixed rope collapsed in the avalanche, three of the climbers fell to their deaths. Others climbers fell to their deaths in the mountain’s “bottleneck” area, or “dead zone”. (Two deaths had occurred during the ascent.) One of the rescued survivors said there were too many inexperienced and naïve climbers on the mountain.

Apparently the bodies may never be recovered. (Although the body of the Serbian climber was found near camp three and was buried by fellow climbers.)

For family members, time has stopped and days have little meaning—the anguished are living minute by minute, waiting for news…experiencing leaps of hope and logic as they wait for word on their loved ones who have yet to be removed…waiting for a body that may never be found.

Failure to recover a body or lay a loved one to rest properly can be very stressful for a family—sometimes grieving remains incomplete.

How do you grieve under those circumstances? Well, people need a focus for grief. That’s why memorials, monuments and/or burying a token artifact in a significant place can all help families deal with their memories when they don’t have a body to grieve over. People need a place to go—a place to grieve, a place to put flowers, a place to remember…

And please keep in mind, if you decide to attempt K2 you have maybe a 1 in 4 chance of dying up there—there’s a 27% fatality rate.

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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