Dmitry Golovchenko missing on Gasherbrum IV, Sergey Nilov evacuated by helicopter

UPDATE 07/09/2023
The Gasherbrum IV expedition has ended in the worst possibile way, with ace Russian mountaineer Dmitry Golovchenko missing and believed to have perished while attempting the unclimbed SE Ridge with Sergey Nilov. Mountain.ru has provided this brief, painful update. It goes without saying that this is a incommensurable loss for the entire mountaineering world.

Gasherbrum IV. Search work is underway
Friends, thank you all for your support and patience.
We will definitely make a detailed report, tell you what happened on Gasherbrum IV.
For now, a brief summary:
"At the moment we don't have exact data.
There is no good connection, and Sergey is still too weak to talk.
There is confirmation of the death of Dmitry Golovchenko and an approximate point.
There is an understanding that Sergei went down himself.
The search for the body is complicated by the height (7000m) and adverse weather.
That's all we can say for now.
Details will be after Sergey's return.
Thanks again for your support."

Published on 06/09/2023
Dmitry Golovchenko is currently reported missing on the slopes of Gasherbrum IV, the 7825m peak in the Baltoro Muztagh chain of the Karakorum in Pakistan, first climbed on 6 August 1958 by Walter Bonatti and Carlo Mauri as part of an Italian expedition led by Riccardo Cassin.

Precise details are currently lacking but it is known that the ace Russian mountaineer was attempting the immense, unclimbed SE Ridge with habitual climbing partner Sergey Nilov when something went terribly wrong a few days ago. Nilov managed to descend on his own to base Camp yesterday and a short while ago was airlifted to hospital, where he has been diagnosed with third degree frostbite.

As mentioned, the pair had their eyes set on the formidable SE Ridge of the "Shining Mountain". After flying to Skardu at the end of July the pair reached base camp on the Baltoro glacier on the 5th of August and immediately started identifying a route through the complicated icefall they described as "a real labyrinth and huge seracs." On the 18th they started their ascent and due to poor weather made slow progress. Brief updates were sent via satellite phone and posted daily by Russian journalist Anna Piunova on mountain.ru, and on the 29th of August the mountaineers appeared to have reached a point where the ridge flattened finally and they managed to simul-climb. Crucially, they could finally see the headwall. Despite the hardship and altitude - the pair were climbing without supplementary oxygen - things seemed to be working relatively well for the pair but it is at this point that updates were interrupted.

All that is known, at this stage, is that after reaching Base Camp on his own accord yesterday, Nilov was rescued by helicopter and taken to Skardu army hospital, while a search and rescue mission is currently being organised for Golovchenko. Needless to say these are extremely tense hours.

Golovchenko and Nilov have made a series of outstanding ascents together in the past, such as the Muztagh Tower in Pakistan in 2012 which netted them the Piolet d'Or in 2013, the Russian direttissima on the North Face of Thalay Sagar in the Indian Himalayas in 2016, the East Face of Jannu in 2019 and the South Face of Voennikh Topografov in the Tien Shan in 2021.