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Our prayers for missing climber Ben
Laura Thistlethwaite31/ 7/2008
THE FAMILY and friends of an experienced climber who has been missing in Pakistan for more than two weeks say they are praying for his safe return.
Ben Cheek, 28, from Withington, was on a solo attempt to scale the north face of the 20,000ft Shimshal Whitehorn mountain in Pakistan on a four-day expedition.
But rescue teams were called in when Ben, of Meltham Avenue, failed to return as planned on July 15.
They have continued to search the Northern Areas bordering China, but have had several attempts to reach the snow-covered peaks hampered due to poor weather conditions. His family, from the Scottish Borders, say they are praying and ‘hoping for the best’.
Ben, a member of Manchester Climbing Centre in Gorton, recently quit his job as a clinical researcher for Trafford Park consumer healthcare company SSL International to pursue his ambition of becoming a professional mountaineer.
Leigh Taylor, Ben’s former boss, said everyone at the company was praying that Ben would turn up safe and well.
He said: "Everyone has been very upset and distressed to hear of Ben’s disappearance, he was an extremely popular member of staff and even though he was only with the company for a short period of time he had made a lot of friends.
"Climbing is his life’s passion, he left SSL in May to prepare for the trip to Pakistan and follow his dream of mountaineering.
"Ben is keen and a very resourceful person – I expect he will have dug himself a snow hole somewhere to shelter until he is rescued.
"Our thoughts are very much with his family and we pray for his safe return."
Ben’s friend and former landlady Lorna Begg, 28, who lives on Meltham Avenue, said: "I am devastated. I want him back so badly.
"I am hoping and praying that there’s good weather so the helicopters can go out."
Ben’s sister Laura said: "We are all keeping our fingers crossed and waiting for any news."
She added that fellow climbers in his expedition had warned Ben conditions were not the best to be attempting the peak alone.
She said: "They told him it was a very dangerous undertaking to go on his own and they are extremely worried about him."
Experts from the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), whose headquarters are on Burton Road, West Didsbury, said the experienced climber had the expertise to survive.
Nick Colton, of the BMC, said: "The weather hasn’t been ideal, we don’t know at this stage whether the rescue helicopters were able to make it out on the weekend to search for him."
Mr Colton added: "There is not just the extremes of weather to consider, but also the debilitation caused by altitude and the possibility of stone fall.
"He would have taken supplies to last him a bit longer than his trip was planned for, but we are gravely concerned.
"There are two ways in which mountaineers can survive in these circumstances; it is still a possibility he has holed himself up somewhere above the snowline, or come down by an alternative route – which may have taken him further down where he could find food."
Ben had initially travelled to the area in a bid to make the first ascent of the northern ridge of the 25,860ft Distaghil Sar peak, in the remote Hispar Range nearby.
He was one of a four-strong Canadian UK team - led by Canadian Bruce Normand - who were attempting the climb on one of the world’s remotest faces of one of the highest peaks. A web log by Don Bowie, one of the original expedition team currently travelling back to look for Ben, states: "This peak has only been successfully summited twice."
A spokesman from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are in touch with his next of kin and the Pakistani authorities, and providing consular assistance to the family."
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If there is anything I can do to help the family at this time my prayers and support go with them
Mark
17/08/2008 at 22:13