Tom Ballard, accompanied by his friend from Italy Daniele Nardi, has been trying to climb the dangerous Nanga Parbat but the two have not been heard from since Sunday. According to the Independent, Ballard had been updating about his journey on his instagram but his last post was on Tuesday, February 19.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BuEAfl-BgWV/
Since then, he has not posted anything.
He had previously posted about bad weather conditions, including heavy snowfall, high winds and an avalanche the pair managed to avoid. He is following into the footsteps of his mother, Alison Hargreaves, who had climbed the Mount Everest but later went missing in 1995 on K2. She was later pronounced dead.
Plans to rescue the two climbers were postponed on Tuesday owning to tensions between Pakistan and India that led to Pakistan closing its airspace. But the permission is expected to be granted today (Thursday) after which the search operation will begin.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt544_hBY_l/
Nanga Parbat is considered the second hardest 8,000-meter peak after K2, the second highest peak in the world, as well as one of the most dangerous.
After 31 people died attempting to climb Nanga Parbat, it was nicknamed the 'Killer Mountain.' Nanga Parbat is the third-most dangerous 8,000-meter peak with a death rate of 22.3 percent of climbers dying on the mountain. By 2012, there were at least 68 climber deaths on Nanga Parbat.
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