An ‘egotistic’ mountaineer has been pictured celebrating reaching the summit of K2 just moments after climbers ‘walked over a dying porter’.

Critics accused Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her team of being ‘more interested in setting records’ than helping the dying Sherpa. They also revealed how Harila and her team threw a party after reaching the top of the mountain. 

As Mohammad Hassan lay seriously injured, 1,300ft from the summit of K2, dozens of fellow climbers carefully edged towards him, risking their lives as they clung to the side of the narrow ledge.

They then clambered around the stricken 27-year-old as they left him to die while continuing their own personal bid for glory.

After footage of the incident emerged, Norway’s Kristin Harila and her team who passed by Hassan faced claims they were more interested in securing a new world record than helping the stricken climber. 

Below her Instagram post celebrating her summitting of K2, social media users slammed her, saying ‘shame on you’, ‘where is your humanity’ and calling her ‘reckless’.

Yet Harila defended herself online and urged people to ‘be kind’. She added: ‘I hope we can learn something from this tragedy. Hassan was not properly equipped to take on an 8,000m summit. 

Critics accused Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (pictured celebrating her summiting of K2) and her team of being ‘more interested in setting records’ than helping a dying Sherpa.

As Mohammad Hassan (pictured) lay seriously injured, 1,300ft from the summit of K2, dozens of fellow climbers carefully edged towards him, risking their lives as they clung to the side of the narrow ledge

Social media users slammed the Norwegian climber for posting her celebration of climbing the mountain

‘What happened is in no way his fault but it shows the importance of taking all of the possible precautions so that we can help ourselves and others.

She added: ‘It is truly tragic what happened and I feel very strongly for the family.’

The climber clinched the record that saw her summit 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over three months despite Hassan’s death.

Fellow mountaineers, reigniting fury about how Sherpas are treated as ‘second-class human beings’, said a Western climber would not have been left to die in the same instance.

Instead of helping him, his fellow climbers went up the side of the mountain past him without offering any help

Norwegian climber Kristin Harila (pictured) said that she and her team did everything they could to help Hassan but the conditions on K2 were too dangerous to move him

As Hassan, a high-altitude porter and father-of-three from Pakistan, who worked for Lela Peak Expedition, lay dead after an avalanche on July 27 pushed him over a ledge, Harila, 37, and her team scaled the 28,300ft K2 mountain.

Harila, who last month scaled her 14th highest peak in just over three months, became the world’s fastest climber to reach the peaks of all the world’s mountains above 8,000 metres.

She has since said that she and her team did everything they could to help Hassan but the conditions on K2 were too dangerous to move him. 

But mountaineer Philip Flämig, an Austrian who was climbing with Wilhelm Steindl, said footage the two recorded using a drone shows a trail of climbers walking over the stricken body instead of helping Hassan.

‘He is being treated by one person while everyone else is pushing towards the summit,’ he told Austria’s Standard newspaper, referencing the drone footage.

‘The fact is that there was no organised rescue operation although there were Sherpas and mountain guides on site who could have taken action.’ Harila and her team members were among those climbers, The Telegraph reported.

He called the death a ‘disgrace’ and said ‘such a thing would be unthinkable in the Alps’ – referencing the ongoing debate about how Sherpas are used in the Himalayas.

‘If he had been a Westerner, he would have been rescued immediately. No one felt responsible for him,’ he told the Austrian publication.

‘A living human was left lying so that records could be set.’

Harila defended her actions and choices on K2 last month to The Telegraph, saying ‘we did all we could for him’.

She told the publication: ‘It is simply not true to say that we did nothing to help him. We tried to lift him back up for an hour and a half and my cameraman stayed on for another hour to look after him. At no point was he left alone.’

She said that given the conditions it was not likely that he could be saved as he had fallen on to what she said was ‘probably the most dangerous part of the mountain where the chances of carrying someone off were limited by the narrow trail and poor snow conditions’.

The footage of the fatality last month shows people physically climbing over Hassan as he lies helpless in the deep snow. 

The video then pans over to show clouds several thousand feet below them, revealing just how high they were when the footage was taken.

The air is so thin at this elevation that all people seen in the video were wearing oxygen masks. 

It appears that just one person ended up helping him, an unknown rescuer who managed to keep him conscious for a while before he died of his injuries. There was no rescue operation to help the young man. 

Climbers were just 1,200 ft from the summit of K2, the second tallest mountain in the world

The video shows clouds several thousand feet below them, revealing just how high they were when the footage was taken

Steindl, who participated in the climb but had returned to the base camp earlier due to the dangerous conditions, also told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he was sickened by the inaction of the fellow climbers.

‘It was a very heated, competitive race to the top. What happened there is scandalous.

‘A living person is left behind so records can be set. It only took 3 or 4 people to save him. Had I seen it, I would have climbed up to help the poor man.’ 

Despite these strong claims, differing accounts of the tragedy have circulated, leading to uncertainty over exactly what took place all the way up K2. 

Lakpa Sherpa, a mountaineer who was on the climb and took the video, told MailOnline that the footage doesn’t capture what actually happened:  

He said: ‘Some of the climbers and sherpas tried to save his life although he passed away. 

‘The climbers have all spent a lot of money to do this climb and there is the value of time too for the climb. Hundreds of climbers tried to save him but they cannot give up their mission. 

‘The reality is they have tried to save the life and this is below the great serace bottle neck, where it’s impossible to cross without rope so it’s a very difficult situation. 

‘Many climbers and sherpas told him to go back as he had very poor equipment and was not well equipped and also there was very bad weather during the summit window but he did not listen and then he fell down. 

‘It was very difficult to bring the body down. They have to summit the mountain. There’s only a little chance for them.’ 

Bulgarian climber Silvia Azdreeva, who was on the trip when Hassan died, said in a Facebook post that climbing K2 is not for the faint-hearted: ‘On K2 there is no one to save you that fast, you’ll have to wait for days if something happens to you. 

‘This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character.’

Bulgarian climber Silvia Azdreeva said: ‘This mountain is not for everyone. K2 has a very heavy character’

K2 – pictured from overlooking town Askole in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of Pakistan – gained notoriety as the ‘Savage Mountain’ after American mountaineer George Bell descended from the peak in 1953

Shockingly, Wilhelm Steindl claimed that a party was held shortly after Mr. Hassan died in celebration of Kristin Harila, a Norwegian woman who set a new world record after she climbed the 14 of the world’s highest peaks in just over 3 months.

‘I didn’t go, I was disgusted. Someone had just died up there,’ the furious climber said.

He revealed in a GoFundMe set up for Mr Hassan’s family that he leaves behind three children and a wife, as well as an elderly grandmother. 

At time of publication, the page has already raised £63,000.

The newly-crowned world record holder Kristin Harila said of the tragedy: ‘My heart and thoughts and prayers go out to the family and loved ones of Hassan and I feel very sad about this whole situation.’

MailOnline has contacted Lela Peak Expedition for comment. 

K2 is considered to be the world’s most dangerous mountain as it has a fatality rate of around 19 per cent compared to just 6.5 per cent on Everest, according to estimates.

For every 20 people who summit Everest, only one summits K2 and there are inherently more risks.

Routes on K2 are not as defined or well laid out with the climb being much more technical with a combination of rock, ice and alpine climbing – and avalanches are also much more common.

The mountain gained notoriety as the ‘Savage Mountain’ after American mountaineer George Bell came down from the peak in 1953 where he nearly slipped to his death.’It’s a savage mountain that tries to kill you,’ he observed following his traitorous climb.