Renowned Slovene mountain climber narrowly escapes death on Pakistan's Nanga Parbat

The renowned Slovene mountaineer Tomaz Humar gave himself, and his countrymen, a bit of fright this week. Trying for yet another climbing record in Pakistan, he found himself trapped at a height of six thousand metres. Slovene's held their breath and prepared to hear the worst about their national hero, who was unable to move, running out of supplies, threatened by frostbite and in a place that normal helicopters could not get to.

Nanga Parbat

The more than 8,000m high Nanga Parbat mountain in Pakistan boasts the world's ninth highest peak. The name literally means "Naked Mountain," but it also goes by the colloquial title "Killer Mountain." It earned its name after more than 30 people lost their lives trying to reach the top. It wasn't until 1953 that someone, a German mountain-climber, finally managed to make it. However: one treacherous side of the mountain, known as the Rupal face, has never been scaled.

The well-known Slovenian climber, Tomaz Humar, hoped to enter the history books as the first person to do so. He tried to scale the mountain two years ago, but was unsuccessful and decided to try again this year. He was joined by two other mountaineers, but they decided to turn back last week after the weather suddenly worsened. Humar continued alone; a decision that nearly cost him his life.

About 2,000 meters from the summit, and after digging himself out of more than one avalanche, Humar was finally trapped and unable to continue. Although he was in touch with his base camp, he was informed that rescue helicopters would have trouble reaching his altitude. With nowhere to move, Humar waited while two attempts to rescue him failed.

News of his predicament quickly reached Slovenia, with people closely following the updates that appeared on his website: www.humar.com and in the media. When news came that he had run out of food and was starting to suffer from frostbite, it seemed that the 36-year-old mountaineer, who has climbed more than 1500 peaks in his career, had finally made his last ascent.

Mount Everest

Slovenia's Foreign Minister, Dimitrij Rupel, contacted the Pakistani Foreign Minister, who promised to provide military equipment if necessary to get Humar back on the ground. But poor weather conditions prevented any further attempts from taking place. Thick clouds and snow meant that the rescue team could only sit and wait - and hope that Humar could too.

Humar later admitted that he thought it would be impossible to rescue him from where he was. But after six long days of waiting, a Lama helicopter that was stripped down to its bare essentials, managed to lower a rope and whisk Humar to the ground.

Exhausted, famished, and suffering from mild frostbite, Humar was otherwise determined to be physically healthy. Soon afterwards, he spoke of the ordeal to reporters from Slovenia's national radio:

"With regard to this international rescue mission, I would like to thank everybody: both [Slovenian president Janez] Drnovsek and [Pakistani president Pervez] Musharraf, as well as the rescue teams and all the people who participated in this. While squatting up there in that hole, I reflected on a lot of things and I asked myself "What's the meaning of all this?" And I realized that if the world turns its attention away from war and people show empathy for each other, perhaps this whole thing was worth it after all."

On his web site, Humar also thanks everyone involved for providing him with what he called a "new birthday." Whether he tries again remains to be seen.