At 27,000 feet, in the darkness of night and on one of the most perilous routes in mountaineering, a team of climbers faced an agonising decision.
Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila and her team encountered a critically injured mountain porter during their record-setting climb of K2 in 2023.
They had to choose between abandoning their attempt and doing everything possible to get him to safety, or pressing on towards the summit, where they were only metres away from a new world record.
They continued upwards. The decision led to months of controversy, abuse and death threats directed at Harila, sending shockwaves through the international mountaineering community.
A new documentary now includes harrowing, previously unseen footage of the moment Harila’s team found Pakistani porter Muhammad Hassan, their desperate efforts to help him and the point at which they ultimately abandoned the rescue attempt.
Harila, now 40, became the fastest climber to conquer the world’s 14 highest mountains. She completed the challenge on K2 in Pakistan on July 27, 2023, reaching the summit in just 92 days.
In the documentary Savage Mountain, Harila recalled finding the porter suspended upside down on the mountain. She said: ‘We saw there was something wrong with the rope around his legs. He was naked on his stomach and his back.’
A climber attempts to rescue a dying porter before slipping dangerously on the mountain
The footage shows the team battling across the snow-covered mountainside in darkness as they try to reach the dying porter
She described the team’s frantic efforts to reach him, while the footage captures one climber attempting to place an ice screw before losing his footing.
‘People were worried about everything collapsing, so of course no one wanted to stay there,’ Harila said. ‘I told Lama, we need to do something.’
The documentary follows the climbers as they struggle across the steep, snow-covered slope in the darkness in an attempt to reach the critically injured porter.
Harila’s climbing partner, Tenjen ‘Lama’ Sherpa, recalled on camera: ‘People were scared. I clipped around 10 people to get closer to the accident.
‘I picked him up and held his hand. We were on a big slope with very slippery blue ice. It was a very dangerous place.’
Harila said the team eventually managed to attach Mr Hassan to a new rope, but turning back with the entire group was not realistically possible.
Gabriel, the documentary’s cameraman, said Mr Hassan was already in an extremely critical condition by the time the team reached him.
‘He was completely frozen. No oxygen, no gloves, no down suit. I tried to warm him, to move his fingers, tried to give him hot water. Tried to give him comfort,’ he said.
At about 3.20am, an avalanche swept down from the side of a serac soon after the team passed the Bottleneck, one of K2’s most dangerous sections.
Harila said two team members were already ahead near the avalanche zone. She and Lama therefore separated from Gabriel and continued climbing, while he stayed behind with Mr Hassan.
Gabriel later said he realised Mr Hassan had almost no chance of surviving because his condition had deteriorated so severely.
Despite this, the cameraman continued trying to keep him alive, even giving him his own oxygen bottle, until someone told him he had to keep going and leave the porter behind.
Once daylight arrived, the climbers were unable to do anything more to save Mr Hassan and continued their ascent up the mountain.
The film captures the moment Harila and her team arrive at the peak, joyfully celebrating the record they had set.
But their celebration and a viral video appearing to show the climbers stepping over a dying Hassan would later overshadow the achievement, triggering months of abuse and online hate directed at the climber.
Harila is seen celebrating at the peak of K2 after breaking a world record
A viral video appeared to show Harila and her team stepping over the dying mountain porter
At the time, Harila said that she had been the victim of ‘hatred’ and death threats for celebrating her feat, and wrote on Instagram: ‘This was no one’s fault, you cannot comment when you do not understand the situation and sending death threats is never okay.’
In the film, she says: ‘This [viral video] was filmed in the middle of the day, when it was light. We were there when he fell in the dark. We tried for hours to save him.’
She says their biggest mistake was not coming forward with the full story immediately after they returned from the climb.
‘What really happened wasn’t controversial. But the story of rich Western climbers stepping over a dying porter to take the record was really controversial. And that’s what the media wants to have.’
Harila also shared some of the over 20,000 abusive messages she received in the aftermath of the climb.
‘F****ing w****, I hope you die in pain,’ one person wrote. Another said, ‘You f***ing murderer, may you burn in hell.’
One particularly awful message read: ‘I pray that next time it’s you, not someone you would declare as “second-class human”. Selfish c***.’
More hate flowed in, with one person telling the mountaineer to ‘kill yourself.’
‘Humans like you disgust me. I hope you are left with a life of misery.’
An inquiry was subsequently opened into Mr Hassan’s death. It concluded that the expedition company had failed to carry out adequate checks and balances, with questions raised over the porter’s poor equipment and lack of preparation.
The company he worked for was required to suspend operations for two years.
Sirbaz Khan, the first Pakistani to summit all 14 of the world’s highest peaks, was involved in the investigation, and said in the film: ‘There were 100 people trying to summit that day. Why was Kristin singled out?’
Harila and Lama gesture upon their arrival at the airport in Kathmandu after the record-breaking climb
Despite the grief and controversy that followed the climb, Harila has continued to pursue her passion for mountaineering
Harila said the goal of the expedition had been to prove that women were just as capable as men and could set records, while hopefully making it easier for other female climbers to secure sponsorship.
‘I think the whole thing unfortunately went in the complete opposite direction,’ she said.
Harila lost most of her sponsors following the backlash and said she came to regret climbing the mountain altogether. ‘I should have never done this. It was a very stupid idea.’
And a few months later, while still dealing with the fallout from the controversy and the abuse she had received, Harila was dealt another devastating blow.
Her climbing partner, Tenjen ‘Lama’ Sherpa, was killed in an avalanche on Shishapangma on October 7, 2023.
American climbers Anna Gutu and Gina Marie Rzucidlo were also killed, along with guide Mingmar Sherpa.
Harila recalled grappling with feelings of guilt, wondering whether, had they not broken the record, Lama might not have been chosen to accompany the American climbers.
The Norwegian climber has since established a foundation in Lama’s memory, and despite the grief and controversy that followed the climb, has continued to pursue her passion for mountaineering.
In May of this year, Harila became the first woman to complete the Everest ‘triple crown’, by summiting Nuptse, Lhotse and Mount Everest in a single spring season.
