On July 9, 65-year-old Scottish climber Rick Allen left his three teammates on Broad Peak in Pakistan鈥檚 Karakorum Range to make a solo push on a new route up a steep ice cliff. He didn鈥檛 return, and the other climbers assumed he had died on his way up the 26,414-foot mountain. But Sandy Allan, Allen鈥檚 long-time climbing partner, wasn鈥檛 ready to give up on him.
Nearby, at K2 base camp, Bartek Bargiel was preparing to use his high-altitude drone to film his brother, Andrzej, skiing off the world鈥檚 second highest peak. The Mavic聽Pro is supposed to have a 16,404-foot ceiling, but Bartek聽had already flown it higher than 27,500 feet.聽Allan asked Bartek if he鈥檇 use the drone to scan the area where Allen was last seen climbing.
As Bartek鈥檚 drone launched on July 10, a cook for a Japanese team on Broad Peak spotted what he thought was an abandoned backpack while looking through a telescope. Then it started to move. Bartek focused the drone鈥檚 camera on the area and found Allen, seemingly in distress.
Climbers David Roeske and Fredrik Str盲ng, already at Broad Peak鈥檚 22,965-foot Camp 3, went聽to investigate. They found Allen, who was alive聽despite a 100-foot fall聽off an ice cliff, and helped him back to the high camp. Soon Tenji Sherpa, who was supporting聽a team from Washington-based Summit Climb, arrived along with other climbers and helped Allen back to base camp on July 12. He had been alone on the mountain for over 36 hours. Allen was badly dehydrated and had a bit of frostbite, but he聽was largely unscathed.