Slovenia's president awards Pakistani pilots

Slovenia's president awards Pakistani pilots

Tomaz Humar, 38, had been trapped on a 6,000-meter-high (20,000-feet-high) icy ledge on Nanga Parbat mountain—the world's ninth highest peak—in the western Himalayas. He had slipped onto the isolated ledge after he tried to ascend an unconquered face of Pakistan's "Killer Mountain".

Pakistani pilots Lt. Col. Rashid Ullah Beg and Lt. Col. Khalid Amir Rana plucked Humar to safety on August 10, 2005. Slovene President Janez Drnovsek presented them with the awards for bravery Monday.

Humar, who remained in radio contact with his base camp during his ordeal, suffered thirst, hunger and the first signs of frost bite, but no serious health problems.

Humar was also periodically buried by avalanches and had to burrow his way out of the snow. He massaged his toes with cream after they turned blue two days in a row, and in the last few days, his food supplies ran out.

Two earlier helicopter rescue attempts failed because of the high altitude and poor weather.

Pakistan's military hailed the rescue as a "highly daring and extraordinary mission" conducted above the normal ceiling for flying, rivaling its 1983 rescue of Belgian mountaineer in the Himalayas from 22,000 feet (6,670 meters).

Two Lama helicopters had optional equipment stripped off to reduce their weight and help them conduct the risky maneuver in the thin mountain air. Neither aircraft was able to land near where Humar was sheltering, so one chopper dropped a sling to him and carried him away, dangling from a rope.

Ullah Beg acknowledged the rescue was an "almost impossible mission."

Humar is a veteran of 1,500 ascents around the world. He was climbing Nanga Parbat, which in Urdu language means "Naked Mountain", via its unconquered Rupul Face.

The 8,125-meter (26,812-foot) peak is more widely known as "Killer Mountain" because of the many climbers who have perished there. In all, 31 people died attempting to reach the summit before it was finally conquered by German mountaineer Herman Buhl in 1953.