Body of UK climber Tom Ballard is discovered on killer mountain

The body of missing mountaineer Tom Ballard has been found alongside his Italian climbing partner by a helicopter search team in Pakistan.

Mr Ballard – the son of the late climber Alison Hargreaves – had vanished on an expedition to climb Nanga Parbat, known as the killer mountain.

Yesterday it was confirmed by an aerial search that two silhouettes spotted on the mountainside by rescuers last week were the two missing men.

Mr Ballard’s death comes 24 years after his mother, the first British woman to climb Mount Everest unaided, perished at the age of 33 while descending from the summit of K2.

Tributes were paid to him and his fellow climber Daniele Nardi after their deaths were confirmed by the Italian ambassador to Pakistan.

A grainy photograph posted online appeared to show Mr Ballard in a blue jacket and Mr Nardi in an orange one in the snow close to their tent.

Efforts will be made to recover the bodies but they are in a hard-to-reach spot 5,900 metres up on a section of the mountain known as the Mummery Spur.

Spanish climber Alex Txikon, who was leading a search team, had reported seeing the two shapes he believed were the missing men last Thursday.

Yesterday Stefano Pontecorvo, the Italian ambassador to Pakistan, tweeted: “With great sadness I inform that the search for @NardiDaniele and Tom Ballard is over as @AlexTxikon and the search team have confirmed that the silhouettes spotted on Mummery at about 5,900 meters are those of Daniele and Tom. R.I.P.”

Mr Ballard, 30, and Mr Nardi, 42, were experienced climbers and had set out on the third leg of their bid to scale the world’s ninth- tallest mountain on February 22.

The last contact with them was two days later when they were at an altitude of 6,300 metres.

A search and rescue operation was launched and Pakistani army helicopters were scouring the area until their bodies were finally spotted.

Mr Ballard was born in Derbyshire but his family moved to the Highlands when he was a child, just months before his mother died.

He went on to become a professional climber and was the first person to solo climb all six major north faces of the Alps in one winter.