A rescue operation has discovered the body of one of the two Japanese climbers who went missing on Spantik Peak, also known as Golden Peak, in northern Pakistan.
“The body has been moved to a safer location, but the search for the second climber continues,” Karar Haidri, a spokesperson for Alpine Club Pakistan told dpa.
The Japanese climbers went missing while attempting to summit the 7,027-metre mountain.
Climbing in Alpine style without porters they reached camp 2, at an altitude of 5,300 metres on Monday. However, another seven-member Japanese expedition team reached the camp the next day and found them missing.
Army helicopters have been assisting in the rescue efforts since Thursday.
Haideri said that high-altitude porters and Pakistan army helicopters are searching for the second climber.
Nestled between the western end of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush mountains and the Karakoram range, the Gilgit-Baltistan region houses 18 of the world's 50 highest peaks. It is also home to three of the world's seven longest glaciers outside the polar regions.
Hundreds of mountaineers, most of them from Europe, try to scale peaks in Pakistan every summer and only a few try during winter. Avalanches and bad weather have proved fatal in the past.