Disteghil Sar, Attempt and Tragedy. It was reported that two Britons and a New Zealander died in an avalanche high on the 25,869-foot Disteghil Sar in August. A Pakistani official in the northern town of Gilgit said the climbers, whom he identified as Stephen Thornley, 25, and Andrew Boas, 24, both British, and Christopher Hoare, a New Zealander, had died on August 12 in the Shamshal Valley on the 25,869-foot peak. Three other climbers from the same expedition, all New Zealanders, set off by road from Gilgit for Islamabad after the accident. The six men arrived in Pakistan in June and told a local newspaper that they aimed to climb Disteghil Sar by a previously unattempted route. According to a Pakistani liaison officer, the team left their base camp on July 8 to attempt the climb. They later split into two groups for a final ascent by different routes. One group, which had tried a rocky route to the summit, returned to Camp Three in bad weather on August 12. The surviving climbers, named as Thomas Davies, Dominic Harmond and Peter Marriott, said they had seen their companions, who were attempting a snow and ice- route, through a long camera lens the same day, but then did not see them again.

They climbed back up to Camp II and waited there until August 23, returning to Base Camp on August 26. (Reuters)