Peruvian climber Richard Hidalgo sent a very emotional message to the people of Peru on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day celebrations, as he shared images depicting the national flag placed at the top of the 8,035-meter Gasherbrum II, one of the highest mountains around the world.
Hidalgo used his Facebook account to tell users about his journey to the peak located in the Karakorum mountain range in Pakistan on July 24th at 16:16, after 17 hours of hard ascent.
“It didn’t take me more than 15 minutes to take the pictures to record the fact, since it got quite windy and I had to descend the mountain immediately to reach the campsite at 9:30 p.m. It took me a total of 24 hours to go up and down the peak from the campsite […],” he added.
He left at 02:00 hrs to go down, cross the vast Gasherbrum glacier and finally reach the base camp at 17:30 hrs on Sunday July 26th.
“I have successfully accomplished the set goal and climbed five out of the 14 highest mountains in the world that are more than 8,000 meters high without supplemental oxygen; moreover, I’m the first Peruvian national to climb one of the mountains in the Karakorum mountain range in Pakistan. The two-colored flag is fluttering at more than 8,000 meters on National Holidays,” he emphasized.
(END) LZD/RMB
Published: 7/28/2015