Official statement from ASKfm about the Everest case

RIGA, Latvia, May 26, 2018 – Ask.fm, an Irish company with its base of operations in Latvia and Ukraine, is publishing this press release in response to recent media articles and speculative reports concerning the well-being of a missing Sherpa who was accompanying a group of climbers scaling Mount Everest, including a group of climbers sponsored by Ask.fm.

As part of its ICO marketing campaign Ask.fm sponsored four crypto currency enthusiasts to climb Mount Everest and place a wallet of Ask Tokens at the summit.

As part of the same expedition there were many other climbers attempting to reach the summit, unrelated to Ask.fm. All of these climbers were assisted by Sherpas, who are Nepalese natives trained and acclimatised to escort climbers on their journey.

We are now aware that one of the Sherpas who assisted our group amongst others, went missing during the descent. We wish to clarify conflicting media reports by stating that at the time of this statement being made we have not had any response from the relevant officials confirming the status of the missing Sherpa, and we are not therefore in a position to confirm if he is safe or otherwise. It would be insensitive to make such assumptions and we await, and urge the media to await, confirmation from the relevant authorities.

There is no doubt that climbing Everest is challenging and dangerous. Our sponsored team came across an injured Chinese climber Saber Liu, who was not part of their group. Our expedition did what they could to assist Saber Liu and he has confirmed that he is safe and well, thanking our climbers for putting his safety before theirs to ensure he reached the foot of the mountain safely.

At the time and until this day, the last official update we received was that the condition and location of the missing Sherpa was unknown and it was not our place to make public statements which could have resulted in false information being circulated.

Our thoughts are with the missing Sherpas family at this time.