Body of US climber Sarah Mallory Geis recovered from Broad Peak
Local volunteers recover the last missing body from the July avalanche, leaving only one Nepali climber’s remains on the mountain
The body of US climber Sarah Mallory Geis, who had been missing on Broad Peak for three weeks, has been recovered by local volunteer rescuers, the Alpine Club of Pakistan said on Friday.
“Finally, the dead body of Sarah Mallory Geis, the missing US climber, has been found on the slopes of Broad Peak by local volunteer rescuers,” Irfan Arshad Khan, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told Everest Chronicle.
Khan had earlier said a body had been found on the mountain but that its identity had yet to be confirmed.
Geis was among 10 climbers caught in a massive avalanche on July 30 that killed six Nepali climbers, including renowned mountaineer Nirmal Purja ‘Nimsdai’.
Renowned Nepali climber Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, widely known as Mingma G, led the initial rescue and recovery operation. Using drones, the team located most of the bodies on the surface. The bodies of Geis and Pakistani climber Sohail Sakhi, however, remained missing.
Geis’ body was being brought to Base Camp before being transported to her family, the Alpine Club said.
Nepali climbers, joined by Pakistani mountaineer Sirbaz Khan, recovered seven bodies from the mountain despite repeated avalanche danger. The body of Nepali climber Nawang Thendu Sherpa remains on the mountain in a precarious location.
Dawa Sherpa, known as Speed Dawa, told Everest Chronicle that rescuers had been unable to bring down Thendu Sherpa’s body because it was in a difficult position above 6,000 metres and the team did not have enough rope to reach it.
The recovery operation has been particularly hazardous. On one occasion, rescuers brought four bodies from about 5,700 metres to a lower location on the same day, only for an avalanche to sweep them away. The team narrowly escaped.
Two days later, rescuers returned to the slope, searched through the avalanche debris and retrieved the bodies from a slope of about 60 degrees in an avalanche-prone area.
Sakhi’s body had earlier been recovered by local volunteers from the mountain.
Muhammad Nadeem, Muhammad Bashir and Ali Abuzar, from the small village of Tissar in Shighar between Skardu and Askole, were searching for abandoned climbing equipment near Advanced Base Camp when they spotted a boot protruding from the snow.
Searching for discarded climbing gear is common in the Karakoram, where equipment such as rope, ice axes and warm clothing can be valuable to communities living in the barren mountain valleys.
The three men discovered Sakhi’s body beneath the snow and called for help. With others in the area, they carried the body to Base Camp. It was identified as Sakhi and airlifted to Skardu the following day.
With Geis’ body recovered, the remains of only one climber from the Broad Peak avalanche — Nepali climber Nawang Thendu Sherpa — remain on the mountain.
According to Speed Dawa, if Nawang’s body remains in its current location until next summer, it may be possible to recover it then. But bringing it down this season is considered impossible because of the difficult terrain and avalanche risk.
The warmer temperatures are now rapidly melting the snow, causing the buried bodies of Sakhi and Geis to emerge in the lower camps.
