NZ father and son killed climbing K2

Denali and father Marty Schmidt.
Denali and father Marty Schmidt.
A New Zealand father and son's tent has been found wrecked and vital climbing tools left abandoned, confirming worst fears they have been swept away and killed in an avalanche on the world's deadliest mountain.

Marty Schmidt, 53, and Denali Schmidt, 25, were hoping to become the first father and son team to conquer the summit of K2 - but they haven't been heard from since Friday.

Others in the Schmidts' climbing party turned back the day before because they were concerned of the threat of an avalanche and of bad weather.

A Sherpa went looking for the pair on Sunday and discovered their tent wrecked by an avalanche - while equipment they needed to keep moving was found intact nearby.

"The news from the findings of the Sherpa who went up to their camp has us grieving tonight. They'd need their crampons and axe to go either up or down on the mountain," said Becky Rippel, the co-owner of Canada-based mountain guide company Peak Freaks, Mr Schmidt's employer. "We fear the avalanche has taken them."

British climber Adrian Hayes who was one of the climbers that turned back said the father and son were very well known, highly experienced and extremely strong mountaineers - the last people many would expect to be killed on a mountain.

"Sadly, at times the mountains do not differentiate between ability and experience, least of all K2. The poignancy of the tragedy is not lost in that, had the rest of us not turned back that day ... we also all would have been sleeping at Camp 3 when the avalanche struck," Mr Hayes posted on Facebook from base camp last night.

He offered his condolences to their family and hoped the Schmidts rested in peace.

New Zealand Alpine Club's general manager Sam Newton said Mr Hayes' report, posted with the agreement of base camp manager Chris Warner, confirmed their worst fears. He called Mr Schmidt one of New Zealand's greatest mountaineers.

"Right now, our thoughts are with the friends and family who have suffered a tremendous loss," Mr Newton said.

Before setting off on their climb , Mr Schmidt spoke of his respect for the Pakistani mountain and of how much he enjoyed climbing with his son: "It's so much fun. We have a great time for three months. Not many fathers get that kind of time with their grown-up sons," he said in an interview with Skins, one of his sponsors.

In another blog, he wrote: "Cutting away from the horizontal world to the vertical world has so much power and grace attached to it, that I love to journey this way many times of the year. I have been doing this now for over 38 years ... Can't see myself stopping any time soon either."

Mr Schmidt, born in California, lives in the Far North with his wife, Giannina Cantale, son and daughter, Sequoia, 22. He divides his time between New Zealand, the US and Canada and is well-known in the local mountaineering community.

Mr Schmidt, a professional guide, has climbed some of the world's tallest mountains without oxygen, including five peaks of more than 8000m. He has climbed and guided on the world's Seven Summits - the seven tallest mountains on each continent - many times, and has summited Everest twice.

Despite K2's dangers, Marty Schmidt said in a recent interview it was the one he loved the most. "I've climbed a lot of the world's biggest mountains but K2 is the one I respect the most. I've been on it twice without summiting. I'm just called to it all the time."

Mrs Rippel last heard from the pair on Monday last week when they left a voice message saying they were planning on a summit push at the weekend and asked for a weather report.

"The winds were showing good speed for a push but it was apparent there had been a lot of precipitation that had me concerned."

Mrs Rippel said she'd had many days when calls from her climber husband, Tim, were infrequent and so has learned not to panic from the father and son's silence. But she was shocked by what the Sherpas found.

A larger search was set to start yesterday morning, Pakistan time, with assistance from the base camp.

The pair were aiming to reach the peak between either on Sunday or yesterday, local time. If that summit was successful, Marty Schmidt was planning to make an other attempt from the more difficult, northern Chinese side next year which he was going to film.

"I want to show the world what it's like. It's like going to the moon without a Nasa rocket," he wrote.

Mr Schmidt is also the mountain ambassador for Macpac and on July 22, he wrote a blog post from K2's basecamp on the New Zealand company's website.

"Bad weather has set in for the next few days, resting and training and prepping gear for our K2 summit push ... Denali and I hope everything clicks so that we can be the first dad and son team to reach K2's summit and [the] ... first alive Kiwis to do so. Great thoughts to you all in NZ and the world."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the New Zealand Embassy in Tehran and the Honorary Consul in Pakistan were liaising with the US Embassy and Global Rescue to monitor progress of the search.

- Amelia Wade of the New Zealand Herald

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