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By Gerrard Kaonga
US News Reporter
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A family friend of a porter who eventually died on K2 mountain in Pakistan has called those who walked past the dying man "below humanity," according to reports.
A video began circulating last week that showed multiple mountaineers stepping over Pakistani porter Mohammad Hassan, 27, on July 27, 2023, and resulted in condemnation against the climbers.
Record-breaking Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her team have faced especially strong criticism online. Newsweek has contacted Harila via Instagram for comment.
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Harila took to Instagram on August 10 to defend her actions and stated she and members of her team attempted to help Hassan before having to make the decision to move on, believing he would receive medical attention.
Basharat Hussein spoke to British news outlet Sky News about the incident, calling it the most "dehumanizing event of [his] life."
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"The climbers who scaled the K2 this year, I understand their behaviors were below humanity and it was beyond saddening," he said.
"After they walked past the man after he was gravely injured in a fall and they scaled the K2, I think this is the most dehumanizing event in my life.
He went on to add that he hopes, in the future, an incident like this will not happen again. Newsweek has not been able to contact Hussain for comment.
Wilhelm Steindl, an Austrian climber who called off his own ascent due to the poor conditions and avalanches, spoke to the Austrian newspaper, Der Standard, about the incident last week. He criticized the mountaineers who did not help, including Harila's group.
"He died miserably there. It would only have taken three or four people to bring him down. I wasn't at the scene of the accident. If I had seen it, I would have climbed up and helped the poor man,"
"What happened there is a disgrace. A living person is left behind so that records can be set."
Speaking to Sky News, Harila reiterated her side of the story and said due to the location Hassan fell, it was a dangerous situation for all of the mountaineers.
"We were just behind him when he fell and he was number 2 in this queue of people," Harila said.
"We saw him hanging upside down and very early we decided we need to try and get him turned around.
"So we put up another ice anchor and we took another rope and first [our Nepali guide] Lama went into him and tried to turn him around and he wasn't able to because this is a very narrow and steep place.
"It is very dangerous to stay there, so Lama came back to this trail and continued up to where the other ice anchor was and put another rope down.
"Gabriel, our camera guy, he went again into Hassan and we were able to get him up to the trail.
"We had to make a decision to split up, on this place it is a very narrow trail and it is impossible to be 10 people to help around there because there is only room for one behind and one in front.
"We decided to split up so we were sure he was still getting help."
Harila and her group were able to beat the record for the fastest climb of the 14 mountains when they reached the summit of K2 during this climb, but her Instagram post celebrating this achievement has been overshadowed by the critical comments for the incident involving Hassan.
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