A team of climbers are due to launch a rescue mission for the German double biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier days after she was seriously injured by a rockfall on a mountain in northern Pakistan.
The accident happened at around midday on Monday at an altitude of 5,700m on Laila Peak in the Karakoram range, according to a statement from Dahlmeier’s team. The 31-year-old was “hit by falling rocks,” and no one had yet been able to reach her due to the danger of further rockfalls and the site’s “remoteness”. Her climbing partner was able to sound the alarm after reaching safety.
“It was determined that a helicopter rescue is not possible,” said Areeb Ahmed Mukhtar, a senior local official in Ghanche district where the more than 6,000m (19,700ft) mountain is located. “The conditions at the altitude where she was injured are extremely challenging, and a team of foreign climbers will launch a ground rescue mission today.”
Shipton Trek & Tours Pakistan, which organised the expedition, confirmed the ground rescue on Wednesday by a team of four that includes three Americans and a German mountaineer.
A helicopter managed to fly over the location and rescuers saw that “the experienced mountaineer is at least seriously injured”, it said. “No signs of life were detected.”
Muhammad Ali, a local disaster management official, told AFP that weather conditions have been “extremely harsh” in the region for the past week, with rain, strong winds and thick clouds.
Dahlmeier, an experienced mountaineer, had been in the region since the end of June and had already ascended the Great Trango Tower.
The International Biathlon Union said it was “thinking of Dahlmeier and her family, hoping for good news to emerge soon”. She has won seven world championship gold medals, and at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang she became the first female biathlete to win the sprint and the pursuit at the same Games.
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Dahlmeier retired from professional competition in 2019 at the age of 25. She went on to become a commentator on biathlon events for German broadcaster ZDF, and also took up mountaineering. She is a certified mountain and ski guide and an active member of the mountain rescue, according to her team.
