An AFP graphics layout shows the region where Mount K2 is located. Inset a handout picture taken early in 2008 and provided by broadpeak08.blogspot yesterday shows French climber Hugues d'Aubarede at base camp of K2. D'Aubarede and Sherpa Karim are reported missing. K2, which is 8,611 meters (28,416 feet) high and known locally as Chogori or "King of Mountains", towers over the majestic Karakorams on the border of Pakistan and China.Photo: AFP

Pakistani army helicopters airlifted two frostbitten mountaineers from K2 and tried to save another yesterday after a catastrophic ice fall on the world's second highest peak killed 11 climbers.
The avalanche is believed to be the deadliest single incident on the 28,251-foot (8,611-metre) Himalayan peak, which is widely acknowledged as far harder to scale than Everest with a fatality rate almost five times as high.
"Two Dutch climbers were brought by our people and their colleagues down to base camp from an altitude of 7,300 metres overnight," army officer Captain Azimullah Beg told AFP by satellite telephone from K2 base camp.
"They were then picked up by army helicopter from base camp this morning and have now been shifted to hospital for treatment for severe frostbite," said Beg, identifying the climbers as Wilco Van Rooijen and Cas van de Gevel.
A second chopper went up to help a stranded Italian but could not touch down and returned after a brief contact with the climber, Pakistani mountain guide Sultan Alam said.
"Our four high-altitude porters left a while ago and it is expected that they will bring the Italian climber down this evening," he told AFP from base camp, as the roar of a helicopter could be heard in the background.
The Italian, Marco Confortola, was unable to walk because of frostbite in his leg, officials said. Alam said he was getting food and drink from a Singaporean expedition in the area.
All three climbers were "badly affected and it appears that at least one of them would have his hand and leg chopped off. This is what our high altitude doctors believe," Alam said.
The climbers who died in Friday's avalanche were three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a Frenchman, Alam and Beg said.
The disaster happened when a pillar of ice broke away in a steep gully known as the Bottleneck near the summit and swept away fixed lines used by the mountaineers as they made their descent on Friday.
"At least 11 climbers have died. This is one of the worst incidents in the history of K2 climbing," Alam said.
In Seoul, a mountaineering club on Monday confirmed that three South Koreans and two Sherpas were among those killed, and another two Korean climbers got to base camp before the avalanche struck.