An Australian and a Canadian climber have been found dead on K2, with the world’s second-highest mountain in Pakistan claiming at least three lives in recent weeks.
The Himalayan Times identified the Australian mountaineer as Matthew Eakin and the Canadian climber as Richard Cartier, after reports the two had gone missing last week during their descent from Camp 2 to Camp 1.
Rescuers spotted the bodies of the two mountaineers on Tuesday, the Times report said.
A spokesperson from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has confirmed the death but not the man’s identity.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to the family of an Australian man who died during a climbing expedition in northern Pakistan,” the spokesperson said.
“We extend our condolences to his family and friends. Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.”
Pajhwok Afghan News, Afghanistan’s largest independent news agency, reported that Afghan mountain climber Ali Akbar Sakhi also died on K2 last week, suffering a heart attack while descending the mountain.
Eakin, from Sydney, was on an expedition along with Cartier and another Canadian, Justin Dube-Fahmy.
Dube-Fahmy had been providing updates on the group’s trek on his personal Facebook page, with the last post made on 21 July: “Richard, Matt and I were pretty tired. 16h of climbing. Then today we touched lower C4 (7600m). We are heading back to Base Camp tomorrow. It’s starting to get cold. We are pretty tired after these two big days.”
Neither Dube-Fahmy’s post nor page has been updated with any news of the deaths but people have started leaving messages of condolences.
Matthew Eakin’s LinkedIn account shows the climber had previously been a tax solicitor, volunteered at the Black Dog Institute for a year, and studied finance and law at the University of Canberra.
The family of Cartier, a palliative care physician from Quebec, told Canada’s CTV that he “lived fully to the end”.
“As Richard said so well in his work in palliative care, ‘People die the way they lived.’ This was the case for Richard,” the statement read.
CTV News is reporting Cartier was considered one of the best and most experienced mountain climbers in Canada, so many people are “shocked to hear he and his partner fell and died”.
One of Eakin’s friends in Pakistan, Kashif Ali, posted on social media about waking up to the “sad news that my friend Matthew Eakin was … found dead on K2”.
“I still can’t believe it that he is no more with us. This is really tragic news, Matthew Eakin was the founder of the excellent FB page Mountaineers Downunder and has made a huge contribution to the mountaineering community in Australia.
“We will miss you forever great legend”.
‘Climb and Wine’ a climbing community group formed to encourage women to build skills and knowledge, shared the news of Eakin’s death, remembering his support.
“Matt supported many in our community to develop skills and confidence in the adventure world and was always available to share his knowledge to anyone with passion to learn,” the statement said.
Bree Sheedon, who went to college with Eakin in Australia, said she was “absolutely devastated to learn this news last night” and shared her memories of the man on social media:
“Matt and I went to college together and I still remember the day I met him sitting next to him in the computer room, and his gorgeous, cheeky smile and absolutely boundless energy!
“We had not seen each other for years but I had been following his adventures online and he still messaged me regularly just to check in because that’s the kind of guy he was.
“The only silver lining in this is that he always told me he was going to journey the world, he wanted to run all the way across Australia to start! Even at 19 years old he was planning big things. He sure did live life to the fullest which was exactly what he always said he would do.”
A Nepalese climber, Pratik Bahadur Khatri, reflected that Eakin’s death came within three months of the death of one of Eakin’s team mates, Dipak Mahat, while climbing in the Nepal Himalaya.
“Within less then three months we lost Dipak during Everest Expedition I feel very sad to loose Matt in K2 Expedition this July,” in a statement shared alongside a photo of Eakin and Khatri.
The ABC is reporting: “Eakin was an experienced climber who had previously trekked K2, in Pakistan, where five of the world’s 14 peaks over 8,000 metres are located.”
