A British climber whose mother died on K2 has gone missing while ascending a peak in Pakistan known as “Killer Mountain”.

Tom Ballard had been tackling the perilous Nanga Parbat with an Italian climbing partner, Daniele Nardi, but the pair have not been heard from since Sunday.

The 30-year-old is a distinguished climber and in 2015 became the first person to ever complete a solo climb of all six major north faces of the Alps in one winter.

His mother, Alison Hargreaves, was the first woman to reach the top of Everest unaided. She died in 1995 during a descent from the peak of K2 in the Himalayas.

On Sunday, Mr Nardi’s ground team reported that the pair had ascended to around 6,300 metres on the 8,100-metre mountain, which is the ninth highest in the world.

However, they added: “The weather is not good, there was fog, sleet and wind gusts.”