Laura Dahlmeier, one of the world’s best biathletes of the last decade, has suffered a serious accident on the 6,069-meter-high Laila Peak in the Karakoram in Pakistan. “Laura Dahlmeier was climbing in alpine style with her female rope partner on 28 July when she was hit by falling rocks. The accident happened around noon local time at an altitude of around 5,700 meters,” informed the 31-year-old German mountaineer’s management team. “She is very seriously injured, at the very least.”
“Her climbing partner immediately made an emergency call, and the rescue operation was launched straight away,” it said. Due to the “remoteness of the area,” a rescue helicopter did not reach the scene of the accident until Tuesday morning.
Helicopter pilots see no signs of life
No signs of life were detected. An international mountain rescue team is currently coordinating the recovery. International climbers in the region are assisting with the rescue operation, according to reports.
It is now dark night in Pakistan. The weather forecast predicts comparatively mild temperatures just below freezing for Laila Peak, but also snow showers. The rescue operation will probably not be able to continue until tomorrow, Wednesday morning. However, there is still too little information available to assess Laura Dahlmeier’s chances of survival.
Great Trango Tower ascended
According to her management, Laura had been en route in the Karakoram since the end of June. On 8 July, she and her friends ascended the 6,287-meter-high granite giant Great Trango Tower, located on the Baltoro Glacier.
The expeditions that took place this summer season on Pakistan’s five eight-thousanders reported extremely dry and unusually warm weather in the region, which led to an increased risk of rockfall.
Certified mountain guide
As a biathlete, Dahlmeier won two gold medals at the 2018 Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. She had also collected a total of seven world championship titles when she retired from competitive sports in 2019 at the age of just 25.
She wanted to make “room for new adventures,” Laura said at the time. She then began training as a state-certified mountain and ski guide in her hometown of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, which she successfully completed in 2023.
To Ama Dablam summit and back in twelve hours
That year, she also summited the 7,105-meter-high Pik Korshenevskaya in Tajikistan, her first seven-thousander.
In fall 2024, she followed this up with a speed ascent of the 6,814-meter-high, beautifully shaped Ama Dablam in Nepal, not far from Mount Everest. It took her just over twelve hours to climb from base camp to the summit at 6,814 meters and back – no woman had ever been that fast on this mountain before. In 2021, she climbed Mont Blanc via the Brouillard Pillar together with the “Huberbuam,” German top climbers and brothers Alexander and Thomas Huber.
Update 8:45 p.m.: According to information from the German newspaper “Bild”, Thomas Huber is also involved in the rescue operation. The 58-year-old also helped bring Dahlmeier’s rope partner Marina Krauss to safety, it said. Kraus is said to be unharmed and has now reached base camp.
Thomas Huber is in the Karakorum to climb the nearly 7,000-meter-high Latok III with Americans Jon Griffin and Tad McCrea. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Gilgit-Baltistan province confirmed that the rescue operation for Laura Dahlmeier is to resume on Wednesday after sunrise.
Update 30 July, 12 noon: According to media reports, four international and two Pakistani mountaineers are climbing Laila Peak to rescue Laura Dahlmeier. The Pakistani newspaper “Dawn” reports that Laura was still able to communicate with her teammate after the accident on Monday. However, Marina Krauss was unable to reach Dahlmeier.
