Texas Woman Spots K2 Avalanche Remains Of Her Father And Brother In Mike Horn Video

A Texas woman, Sequoia Di Angelo, who lost both her dad and her brother in an avalanche on Pakistan’s K2, said she saw their remains in the backdrop of a Mike Horn video. Ms. Di Angelo’s renowned mountaineer father, Marty Schmidt, and her brother, Denali Schmidt, were killed while climbing the second-highest mountain’s summit in 2013.

Marty Schmidt and Denali Schmidt were the first father-son team to reach the summit, the Daily Mail reports. Less than 400 people have reportedly reached the top of K2 – about 4,000 climbers have made it to the top of the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest. The pair had reached the summit before the K2 avalanche took their lives on July 26, 2013, during their descent. Their bodies were never recovered, and Sequoia Di Angelo said she was horrified when spotting their remains in the promotional video made by Mike Horn.

Di Angelo traveled to Pakistan to climb K2 and recover the remains of her loved one.

“I immediately thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s my brother’s head,’ Di Angelo said during an interview with Fox News. “I’m sure every family who lost someone on that mountain thought the same thing and experienced the same sick feeling in seeing that.”

Sequoia sent an angry message to Horn via Facebook. She told the explorer that his lack of respect for the dead and their grieving loved ones disgusted her. She also demanded that he remove the video which showed the “decaying bodies” of the climbers who lost their lives during the K2 avalanche.

Sequoia Di Angelo had this to say to Mike Horn about the video:

“I want you to know that this is a complete and utter disgrace. You should be ashamed of yourself and your lack of respect for the climbers who have come before you. This horrific image will be indelibly imprinted in my mind. Is nothing sacred anymore? I am appalled with your lack of respect for those of us who are still attempting to make sense of our grief. No matter whose body was captured… I am asking you to remove this image at once! Respect the families and loved ones of those who have perished on this or any mountain.”

Mike Horn ultimately took down the video and said that he apologized to anyone he offended.

The explorer said that he was sorry if he ” offended anyone who lost loved ones and do not see life and death” in the same way as he does.

Horn, 49, had climbed with Marty Schmidt in the past. He claimed that adventurers and other climbers often possess a “different moral code” when it comes to those who die on the mountain slopes.

“Marty Schmidt was a friend of mine. Many people die on these mountains and I have no right to decide for someone else what I should or should not do with their remains. Most of the climbers know the risk they take and all of them usually say just leave me where I die.”

The Pakistan K2 avalanche killed more than 80 people.

Di Angelo, an inexperienced climber, gathered a team and began the 8-day hike to the K2 Base Camp in an attempt to recover the remains of her father and brother. It took several more days until she was able to find the bodes she had seen in the Mike Horn video. Di Angelo gathered DNA samples from the bodies before laying them to rest under some rocks on a nearby mountain slope.

[Image via Facebook]