Laila Peak

The summer season in the Karakorum has not even really kicked off, but the first death is already reported. Italian Leonardo Comelli lost his life on Thursday while making a ski descent from the 6,096-meter-high Laila Peak, said Karrar Haideri, spokesman of the Alpine Club of Pakistan. At his first attempt to ski down Laila Peak, Comelli crossed his skis, lost his balance and fell 400 meters down rugged terrain to his death. According to Haideri’s words, the other three team members were able to retrieve the body. Comelli came from the small town of Muggia located in the province of Trieste. With 16 years he started rock climbing. Later he made his mark as an ice climber, mountain skier and alpine photographer.

Eyecatcher Laila Peak

The British climbers Simon Yates, Sean Smith and Mark Miller had made the first ascent of Laila Peak via the western flank in 1987, doing it without a permit. The six-thousander is one of the most striking mountains in the Karakoram, it rises up like a perfectly shaped pyramid of granite. Every hiker who – like I did in 2004 – is crossing Gondogoro La, a 5614-meter-high pass towards the end of the Baltoro trek, will not forget the view of Laila Peak: a beautiful mountain but extremely steep and challenging too.