Kyle Dempster, Scott Adamson Overdue From Ogre II; Friends Mobilize
Climbers expected to return in five days, have been out for 10
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Climbers are mobilizing in an effort to help the leading climbers Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson, extremely
experienced expeditioners from Utah who are missing on the Ogre II in Pakistan.
Nathan Smith wrote on Facebook last evening: “They are survivors. I can’t wait to hang out and hear the crazy story once they return. Kyle and Scott, get
your asses out of your tent or snow cave and get back to camp. We need you back home!”
A gofundme effort has been swiftly set up. On the page, the two are reported to have started
up the North Face of the Ogre II, in the Karakorum of northern Pakistan, on Sunday, August 21, intending on a five-day climb and descent. The next
day their Pakistani cook, Ghafoor Abdul, spotted their headlamps “roughly halfway up the peak.” A day later a storm moved in and has persisted since.
The page reads, “On Sunday, August 28, family and friends initiated a search and rescue effort, assisted by local authorities and another climbing team on the Choktoi,” and concludes: “Please help these boys. Death is imminent if we cannot help. With the initiation of the Search and Resuce we have also been required to transfer money for the helicopter rescue and porters on foot in search of Scott and Kyle. With the unreliable weather we are needing more money everyday. Please consider the urgency of this situation and how thankful we are for your help.”
Many have shared the link and posted thoughts such as this by Nat Shultz: “Come on boys! You’ve got the strength, skill, and experience. Get thru this
and come home to your family and friends.”
Nathan Smith tells Rock and Ice, “I am really hopeful. They are strong guys and both have come back from bad situations in the past.”
Dempster is from Salt Lake City, and Adamson is from Provo.
The two climbers attempted the peak in 2015. Dempster is a two-time Piolet d’Or recipient, for Ogre 1 (Pakistan) with Hayden Kennedy and Josh Wharton in
2013, and Jed Brown and Bruce Normand for the first ascent of the north face of the Xuelian West (Chinese Tien Shan), 2010. His and Bruce Normand’s
first ascent of the East Face of Mount Edgar, China, was nominated in 2011. Scott Adamson has done major first ascents on Alaska’s Mountain Huntington
and the Moose’s Tooth, including the testpiece Levitations and Hail Marys, and firsts from peaks in Nepal to the ice flows in the Utah backcountry.
Libertymountain.com, sponsor of both climbers, lists Adamson’s Santeria as the hardest mixed route in Utah.
The two won a prestigious Mugs Stump grant in 2015, for their trip to the Karakorum last summer, in which they tried the same route.
According to a press release distributed by Outdoor Research, another of Dempster’s sponsors, late on the afternoon of August 31: “The persistent storm
is hampering rescue efforts via helicopter, though search and rescue teams also have been deployed on foot….[T]he family and close friends are working
with the American Alpine Club, senior American alpinists in the region and countless local and international resources.”
The statement also read, “The families of Dempster and Adamson both request that they not be contacted so that they may focus their attention on the search-and-rescue
efforts.”
See these links on both climbers:
https://rockandice.com/lates-news/lone-star
and these videos on both: