Norwegian climber says it would have been impossible to carry injured Pakistani porter down K2

Uproar was sparked by drone footage showing climbers walking past gravely injured porter

Kristin Harila (L) and Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa at Kanchenjunga, the third-highest mountain in the world (Courtesy of Field Productions/AF)

A record-setting Norwegian mountaineer has pushed back against claims that she could have done more to save the life of a Pakistani porter who died near the peak of the world's most treacherous mountain.

Mohammad Hassan, 27, tripped and fell while scaling K2, the world's second-highest peak on 27 July. He slipped while on a particularly dangerous part of the mountain trek known as the "bottleneck" and died there after several hours.

Drone footage has since emerged purporting to show climbers walking past the gravely injured porter toward the summit.

The death sparked ongoing controversy after two climbers argued that he could have been saved if all those on the mountain that day had aborted their climb and focused on getting him down safely.

The fallout from Hassan’s death overshadowed a record established by Norwegian Kristin Harila and her Sherpa guide, Tenjin. By climbing K2 that day, they became the world's fastest climbers, scaling the world's 14 highest mountains in 92 days.

Speaking out about the controversy, Ms Harila said on Sunday: "In the snowy condition we had up there that day, it wouldn't be possible to carry him down.

"I'm sure that if it was possible that we saw a chance to carry him down from there, everyone would have tried that. But it was impossible."

The path to the peak was crowded on 27 July, described as the last day of the season for a possible ascent.

Asked if she felt the controversy had tainted her record, Ms Harila said "of course," but did not elaborate.

The fallout from Hassan’s death overshadowed a record established by Norwegian Kristin Harila (AP)

She appeared distraught at times during the interview and said she had received death threats.

“We tried for hours to save him and we were on probably the most dangerous area" of K2, she said adding that she and her teammates were "taking a very, very big risk."

Ms Harila said Hassan slipped and fell off the narrow path around 2.15am, dangling on a rope upside down.

At the time, Hassan had been second in the line of climbers. Harila said she was eighth and her team members were in 7th and 9th place, respectively.

As they tried to pull Hassan onto the path, an avalanche came down near where her forward fixing team was.

After 90 minutes of attending to Hassan, Harila and a teammate moved in the direction of the summit to check on the fixing team, while her cameraman, Gabriel, stayed behind with Hassan, she said.

Gabriel shared his oxygen with Hassan, gave him warm water and tried to warm him. She said Gabriel stayed with the porter for two and a half hours but started running out of oxygen.

Gabriel then moved toward the peak to meet up with Harila's sherpas who had extra oxygen tanks. At that time, there were also others attending to Hassan, she said.

Mother of Mohammed Hassan, a Pakistani porter who was died on July 27 (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

When Gabriel arrived at the peak, Harila asked him how Hassan was doing. She said Gabriel told her that he was "in very bad shape." On the way back down, she saw Hassan's dead body lying on the path.

Ms Harila rejected claims made by Austrian climber Wilhelm Steindl that more would have been done if a Westerner had been hurt on the mountain.

In Pakistan, local authorities in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, which has jurisdiction over K2, formed a five-member committee on August 7 to investigate Hassan's death.

The committee's mandate noted that it's crucial to determine the facts after "distressing reports circulating on various social media platforms".

Investigators will try to determine, among other things, whether more could have been done to save Hassan, said Sajid Hussain, deputy director of the Sports and Tourism Department of Gilgit-Baltistan.

He said on Sunday that investigators are to submit their findings on August 22.