Murad Sadpara was struck on the head by a rock at the weekend as he descended Broad Peak mountain, the 12th highest in the world at 8,051m, while supporting an expedition with a Portuguese climber.

“His death is a sobering reminder of the extreme risks involved in high-altitude climbing, where the line between life and death is often perilously thin,” Karrar Haidri, the head of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, told AFP.

A rescue team confirmed his death today, after efforts to reach him over the weekend were hampered by poor weather and logistical challenges.

Sadpara, who was in his early 30s, hailed from a mountain village renowned for its highly skilled porters who regularly support record-breaking expeditions.

A little more than a week before his death, Sadpara and four other teammates successfully retrieved the body of Muhammad Hassan Shigri from the extreme altitude of 8,200m on K2 in a mission the Alpine Club described as the first of its kind on the world’s second highest mountain.

A year earlier, Sadpara was part of a team that retrieved the body of an Afghan climber from the mountain’s Camp 3, the first time a body was brought back from K2.

Five foreign climbers have fallen to their deaths in separate incidents on Pakistan mountains this summer climbing season.