Drones being used in search

[MACK AIR]

Planet Mountain this morning ( 1st Feb) report... According to the official Fb page of Daniele Nardi, this morning the rescue operation program consists of flying to K2 Base Camp to pick up the mountaineer Alex Txikon who "with 3 of his team, including a doctor, will be transported from K2 base camp to Nanga Parbat Base Camp and subsequently to a position closer to the Diamir face, closer to Camp 1. From there Txikon will use three powerful drones designed for long high altitude flights and he will search the entire area around the Mummery Rib, up to the plateau above and along all hypothetical lines that the climbers may have taken.” The Italian Embassy in Islamabad with the support of the Pakistani Army "is working on receiving permits for the helicopters to take off”, seeing that the area is still subject to the recent violent tensions between India and Pakistan. The Russian alpinists on K2 who yesterday had offered to search by land, in agreement with the rescue organisation, have instead decided to renounce “due to the high risk of avalanches on Nanga Parbat". Full report on here Nanga Parbat: still no contact with Daniele Nardi and Tom Ballard. Alex Txikon also available for rescue mission 104