2018 Rick Allen Broad Peak Solo Ascent and Drone Rescue

United Kingdom🏔️ 4 Peaks

Rick Allen

Richard 'Rick' Allen was born in 1953 in Scotland. Growing up climbing the rugged sea cliffs and frozen gullies of the Scottish Highlands, Allen forged an extraordinary physical endurance and an understated, humble persona that made him a beloved legend among British mountaineers. Rejecting commercialized siege climbing, Allen devoted his life to exploratory, small-team alpine style in the world's highest mountains. Over a four-decade career, Allen climbed extensively across the Karakoram and Himalayas, establishing bold lines on peaks exceeding 7,000 and 8,000 metres. His finest hour arrived in July 2012 on Nanga Parbat (8,126m). Partnered with fellow Scottish veteran Sandy Allan, Rick Allen—then fifty-seven years old—tackled the unclimbed 10-kilometre Mazeno Ridge. Over eighteen continuous days living above 6,500 metres without supplemental oxygen and enduring days without food and water, Allen pushed through severe frostbite and temporary snow blindness to reach the summit on July 12, 2012. The breakthrough earned Allen and Allan the 2013 Piolet d'Or. In July 2018, while descending from a solo summit bid on Broad Peak (8,051m) in Pakistan, Allen slipped and fell from an elevation above 7,400 metres, sliding into an icy wilderness. Believed dead by climbers at Base Camp, Allen miraculously survived an open bivouac in freezing temperatures. Thirty-six hours later, Polish filmmaker Bartek Bargiel spotted Allen moving through the snow using a camera drone, guiding rescue climbers from Camp III to reach him alive in one of the first drone-assisted mountain rescues in history. In July 2021, while attempting a new lightweight route on the Southeast Face of K2 (8,611m) to raise funds for mountain charities, Allen was tragically swept away and killed by an avalanche at age sixty-eight. He is remembered as one of the purest, most resilient souls to ever touch the high Himalayas.