NI climber abandons K2 summit attempt

A climber from Northern Ireland has been forced to abandon a winter summit attempt on the world's second-highest mountain.

Three others are still missing, presumed dead, from the same expedition on K2 in Pakistan.

A number fell to their deaths and 10 team members were removed by helicopter with sickness or frost injuries.

Noel Hanna had been hoping to become the first person from the island of Ireland to climb the peak in winter.

The climber, from Dromara in County Down, was forced to retreat due to the weather conditions.

He was at about 8,000m altitude and the temperature was -60 or -65, with eight or 10 hours of climbing still to go.

He told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme: "I thought, it is not for me, my life does not mean that much to get to the summit of K2 and we turned around and got back to high camp."

On Monday morning, he was on a 100km trek out of base camp - one of only five walking out.

Seven weeks ago, on the way in, there were 19 or 20.

"Those are the dangers that you take when you go on the mountain, that is what you have to think of - everybody going in is not going to come back out," he said.

"A lot of it is making your own choices of when to turn around and when not to keep going."

His wife Lynne said she was relieved to hear from him.

"I always knew in the back of my mind with Noel that he has the experience to understand those limitations and the limitations of others around him," she told Good Morning Ulster.

On 16 January, a team of Nepalese climbers set a new world record by becoming the first to reach the summit of K2 in winter.

K2, which is only 200m shorter than Everest, is part of the Karakoram Range that straddles the Pakistan-China border.

One of only 14 mountains higher than 8,000m, it is widely considered the most demanding of all in winter and has long been referred to as "the savage mountain".

Mr Hanna previously became the first person from Northern Ireland to reach the summit of K2 in July 2018.