Tom Bollard latest: Search for lost British mountaineer and Italian adventurer Daniele Nardi called off due to snow

Tom Ballard has not been contacted for a week
Tom Ballard/Instagram
Jacob Jarvis3 March 2019

Searches for two mountaineers lost climbing one of the world's highest peaks in Pakistan have been called off again due to snow thwarting rescuers.

British climber Tom Ballard and Italian Daniele Nardi were climbing Nanga Parbat when contact was lost with them a week ago.

Mr Bollard is the son of Alison Hargreaves, who was the first woman to climb Everest unaided and died on K2 aged 33 just months after that feat.

The ongoing tensions over Kashmir and adverse conditions previously put a stop to rescuers looking for him and Mr Nardi on the 26,660ft peak nicknamed Killer Mountain.

On Sunday the Italian ambassador to Pakistan tweeted a search party were being flown in, with Pakistani army helicopters bringing in Basque climber Alex Txikon and his team from K2.

However, Karrar Haidri, secretary of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said the team could not reach the base at Nanga Parbat due to snow and will try again on Monday.

High-altitude drones were planned to be flown over the area where the pair are missing.

Mr Pontecorvo previously said both the missing men are "tough guys" and added: "We hope for a miracle ... and just try our best to find them."

The initial search plans on Thursday had been prevented when Pakistan closed its air space after it shot down two Indian military planes.

Following this snow, clouds and low visibility forced proposed searches on Friday and Saturday to be postponed.

Mr Ballard was born in Derbyshire and moved to Scotland in the same year his mother died.

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