Pavle Kozjek missing on Muztagh Tower, Dejan Miskovic safe

49 year old Slovenian mountaineer Pavle Kozjek has been reported missing since 25 August on Muztagh Tower (7273m), Karakorum, Pakistan. Details are still unclear about the accident and the only good news is that his partner Dejan Miskovic has just been rescued by helicopter after having endured a difficult three-day descent to circa 5400m.

Pavle Kozjek and climbing partner Dejan Miskovic were attempting a new route in alpine style up the unclimbed north face of Muztagh Tower when Kozjek, for reasons still unclear, disappeared from view on 25 August.

After having raised the alarm Miskovic began the difficult descent down the French route. Despite bad weather and total lack of equipment (tent, sleeping bag, food, drink, stove etc) Miskovic survived three bivvies and managed to descend to circa 5400m, where he was finally rescued by helicopter and flown to safety.

Search operations for Kozjek are in full force. A strong Slovenian team was flown to Base Camp directly from K7, where these mountaineers had established a new route and repeated the House-Anderson-Prezelj. The group, comprised of Ales Cesen, Nejc Cesen, Rok Blagus, Rok Sisernik and Mihael Hrastelj, hopes to launch another recognition flight shortly, weather conditions permitting.

Pavle Kozjek was born in Llubijana and is held in high esteem by the mountaineering community for the style of his ascents. These include, amongst others, new routes in the Himalaya such as the South Face of Shisha Panga (climbed with Andrej Stremfelj in 1989) and his solo new route up the SE Face of Cho Oyu - for which he received the Spectators Prize at the Piolet d'Or 2007. In Patagonia Pavle established the fearsome "Diretissima dell’Inferno" on the East Face of Cerro Torre (1985 with Francek Knez, Janez Jeglic, Slavc Sveticic and Silvo Karo) while in the Andes he climbed new routes on mountains such as Chacraraju, Huascaran, Siula Grande and Chopicalqui. Pavle is also known for his great humanity and it was he who brought the Nangpa La to world attention, a tragedy during which Chinese officers shot dead some Tibetan refugees. As Urban Golob writes, "here in Slovenia, everybody is waiting for a miracle."