Rescuers have discovered the bodies of two mountaineers, one from Canada and the other from Australia, who went missing while scaling the world’s second-highest peak K2 in Pakistan.
Australian climber Matthew Eakin and Canadian climber Richard Cartier went missing last week at K2 between Camp 1 and Camp 2, in two separate incidents.
“Body of Richard was found at Japanese Camp 1 and the body of Matt from Australia was spotted in ABC,” a source at the K2 base camp confirmed.
Cartier went missing on July 19
Canadian Cartier, 61, went missing during his descent from Camp 3 to Base Camp on July 19. He was a professional mountaineer and he went to Camp 3 for acclimatization.
The ground search operation was launched to trace the missing climber, but he was not found.
Later, on Tuesday, the body of the missing Canadian climber was found near Camp 1 with help of drone cameras. He had fallen from a cliff and his body was found on a rock.
Cartier’s expedition was being documented on social media by another Quebec mountaineer, Justin Dubé-Fahmy, with a final entry dated last Thursday.
Eakin went missing on July 22
Eakin, the Australian climber also went missing during his descent from Camp 3 to Base Camp in a separate incident on July 22.
His body was also confirmed to be spotted near Advance Base Camp on Tuesday.
Sources at Base Camp told that the Australian climber fell on rocks.
The bodies of both the climbers were intact and frozen.
The cause of the fatal accident remains unclear since both the climbers were considered experienced mountaineers.
Friends and family remember the climbers
Rob Norman, an Australian adventurist, expressed his grief over the demise of Mr. Eakin in a social media message as he paid tribute to him and offered condolences to his family.
Recalling the days he spent with Eakin, Norman said that “Anyone who had the pleasure to spend even a few minutes with Matthew Eakin would no doubt come away with a renewed zest for life.”
Australia’s mountaineering community Climb & Wine also paid tribute to Eakin and said that “Matt embodied energy, passion, and enthusiasm to live life to the fullest extent, embracing every opportunity to experience what life had to offer.”