“Sad death of Sergi Mingote in K2”, Sánchez he tweeted. “I wanted to continue making history as part of the first expedition to crown this mountain in the middle of winter and a tragic accident has ended his life. A big hug to the loved ones of this great athlete.”
K2, which is part of the Karakoram Range that straddles the Pakistan-China border, is the second highest mountain in the world at 8,611 meters (28,251 feet).
A post on Mingote’s official Instagram account said, “Rest in peace, Sergi. You start a new climb today.”
Just a day earlier, the climber had shared a post announcing that it was the 27th of his climb and that he had reached 7,000 meters.
Chhang Dawa Sherpa, a Nepalese mountaineer leading the K2 winter expedition, said on Instagram that Mingote “fell suddenly.”
“We [were] informed by an unexpected movement on his GPS tracker and that he could see that he fell a lot, site members quickly confirmed the accident, but could not do much to help him, ”Sherpa said.
A “wild mountain”
K2 is located in the Karakoram Mountains, where the largest concentration of high mountains in the world is located.
The peak is recognized among climbers for its difficulty and has been given the nickname “Savage Mountain” as an ode to its unforgivable nature.
Compared to the more than 4,000 people who have climbed Everest, the world’s highest mountain, at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet), there have only been 350 people at the top of K2 since 2018 when it was first surpassed. time in 1954.
Although few have joined K2, at least 77 people have died trying to climb.
A team of 10 Nepalese climbers reached the top of K2 on Saturday, Nirmal Purja, one of the climbers, announced in an Instagram post.