President of Czech Mountaineering Federation dies in an accident on Gasherbrum I.

Press Release Alpine Club of Pakistan

It is notified with regret that an accident of Czech Republic Expedition to 8,068 metre high Gasherbrum I occurred on 9th August 2013 resulting death of 57 years old famous Czech mountaineer and current President of Czech Mountaineering Federation Mr Zdenek Hruby. It has been confirmed from the Base Camp of the mountain that Zdenek Hruby accompanied by his partner Marek Holecek were attempting to climb the mountain from a new route via South West side for the past several days. However, on failure to make their headway to the summit from the new route, the two men team decided to quit their attempt and descend down. On 9th August the Base Camp team could watch them coming down through binoculars, however they noticed that suddenly one climber disappeared. After sometime Mr Marek Holecek announced that Zdenek Hruby had fallen down, and after reaching him Holecek announced that Hruby had died.

After consultations with Zdenek Hruby’s family in Czech republic, it was decided by the team to bury his body in a crevasse below Camp I. It may be mentioned that Zdenek Hruby had ascent of eight peaks out of the total fourteen peaks rising above 8,000 metres to his credit including Nanga Parbat and Gasherbrums I and II. It is also mentioned that two other members of the Expedition namely Tomas Petrecek and Marek Novotny had earlier climbed Gasherbrum I on 28th July through normal route.

President ACP has condoled death of the famous Czech mountaineer and President Mr Zdenek Hruby with the Czech Mountaineering Federation and the bereaved family.

In spring this year, they achieved the first ascent of the North Face of Talung (7,349 m), in alpine style.

Photo: http://www.horosvaz.cz