*Islamabad/Warsaw: *Efforts to rescue a Polish man and a French woman stuckon a treacherous peak in northern Pakistan known to mountaineers as “KillerMountain” are set to begin on Saturday, officials said.

Tomasz Mackiewicz from Poland and Elisabeth Revol of France were attemptingto ascend 8,126 metre (26,660 feet) Nanga Parbat in Pakistan’s Himalayamountain range.

Four members from a team of Polish climbers attempting the first wintersummit of nearby K2, the world’s second highest mountain, will assist inthe rescue operation after a Pakistan Army helicopter picks them up fromtheir base camp and flies them to Nanga Parbat.

“They will be brought from K2 to Nanga Parbat and then the operation willbegin,” Asghar Porik of Jasmine Tours told Reuters on Friday.

Mackiewicz and Revol got stuck at the 7,400 meter mark from where they useda satellite phone to call for help, spokesman for the Alpine Club ofPakistan Karrar Haidri told Reuters.

A rescue attempt to save the mountain climbers from Nanga Parbat will begintomorrow (Reuters)”We have no contact now with Tomasz,” said Janusz Majer, who helped preparethe Polish expedition team currently scaling K2, adding that messages sentby Revol said Mackiewicz was suffering from snow blindness and frostbite.

“We do not know in what condition he is in. He hid himself in a crevasse toseek protection from wind. Tomasz in the past has spent a couple of nightsabove 7,000 metres, but with all the needed equipment … Now he has notent,” Majer said.

Mackiewicz has made six previous attempts to scale Nanga Parbat in winter.The first successful winter ascent of the mountain was made as recently asFebruary 2016.

A GoFundMe web page set up to raise the estimated 50,000 euros ($62,000)required to pay for the rescue operation costs reached its target in fourhours.

Pakistan rivals Nepal for the number of peaks over 7,000 meters (23,000feet).

Iqbal Hussain, the head of the tourism department for Pakistan’s Gilgitregion, where Nanga Parbat is located, told Reuters that the rescueoperation would begin on Saturday.

The Polish foreign ministry said on Twitter that it would assist with therescue operation, and “on the ground efforts are being coordinated by thePolish Embassy in Islamabad”.

In June a Spanish man and an Argentinian perished in an avalanche whiletrying to scale Nanga Parbat. – Agencies