Chinese Mountaineer Killed in Rockfall After K2 Summit

Chinese climber Guan Jing died on Tuesday night after being struck by falling rocks while descending from the summit of K2, the Alpine Club of Pakistan has confirmed.

The accident happened on the Abruzzi Spur between Camp I and Advanced Base Camp—a notorious section for frequent and dangerous rockfalls—said the club’s vice president, Karrar Haidri.

Guan had reached the summit the previous day as part of a 15-member team led by Imagine Nepal. The expedition’s success is credited to renowned mountaineer Mingma Gyalje Sherpa (Mingma G), whose persistence and leadership opened the route despite weeks of delays, hazardous rockfall, and harsh weather that forced many other teams to turn back.

Mingma G had waited at Base Camp for a rare weather window, which finally arrived on August 11—the very date he had predicted would bring success. More than two dozen climbers, including Guan, stood on the summit that day.

Guan’s death marks the second fatality on K2 this season. In July, Pakistani climber Iftikhar Hussain Sadpara was killed in an avalanche near the same section of the mountain during acclimatization. His body was recovered soon after. That avalanche also struck three other climbers, two of whom escaped unhurt while a foreign mountaineer suffered minor injuries.

Recovery efforts for Guan’s body are now underway, Haidri said. All other climbers from Monday’s summit push have returned safely to Base Camp.

This summer’s Karakoram climbing season has been exceptionally dangerous. Warmer temperatures have melted snow cover, exposing more rock and dramatically increasing the risk of avalanches and rockfall. The conditions were so severe that Gasherbrum II, another major 8,000m peak in the region, saw no summits at all this year.