SKARDU, Pakistan: German Olympic champion Laura Dahlmeier’s climbing partners said on Thursday the decision to leave her body on a remote peak in Pakistan was based on dangerous conditions and her own written wishes that no one should risk their life in a recovery attempt.
Dahlmeier, a double gold medalist in biathlon, was struck by a falling rock on July 28 while descending Laila Peak in the Karakoram range. She lost consciousness immediately and showed no signs of life, according to her climbing partner
Marina Eva Krauss, who said she was unable to reach her without endangering herself amid an ongoing rockfall.
“It was clear to me that the only way to help her was to call the helicopter,” Krauss told Reuters in Skardu. “I called her and there was no response and she had just stopped moving … I saw that she had been hit on the head and that she only had a chance if help arrived immediately.”
Marina Eva (second right) mountaineering partner of German Olympic biathlon champion Laura Dahlmeier, looks on during a press conference along with the rescue team members in Skardu in Pakistan’s mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region on July 31, 2025. (AFP)
