A Japanese equipment supplier said on August 22 that two of the company’s representatives had died after slipping and falling more than a kilometer on K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.

Ishii Sports expressed its condolences to the families of Kazuya Hiraide (45) and Kenro Nakajima (39), two of Japan’s most successful mountaineers.

According to the company, on July 27, the two were climbing an unexplored route on the west face of K2, an 8,611-meter-high peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram. They had exceeded the 7,500-meter mark.

At 7 a.m. that day, “a film crew visually confirmed that the two had slipped on the ice,” the company said.

The Japanese headquarters of Ishii Sports received a report that Hiraide and Nakajima had fallen “more than 1,000 meters.” Their bodies were “visible from an advanced base camp, but they were not moving,” the company said.

The captain of another climbing team on K2 checked the situation from a helicopter and reported that the two Japanese were “connected by a rope about 6,300 meters up the mountain.”

“I cannot confirm whether they are alive or dead,” the captain was quoted as saying.

No helicopter could land near the two climbers and access from the ground was not possible.

The rescue operation was called off on July 30.