climbers trapped on K2 friday, now getting pulled off

[cortez]

Climbers Trapped High on K2
Erik Lambert
Posted on: August 1, 2008
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Dutch climbers Wilco van Rooijen (top) and Gerard McDonnel on K2 (8611m). Preliminary reports suggest these two and about ten others are trapped above the "Bottleneck" just below K2's summit; the fixed ropes that usually aid passage through this section were wiped out by a chunk of serac ice. [Photo] www.noritk2.nl

News Flash: The following news flash is a preliminary report posted as a service to our readers. Alpinist has not confirmed the veracity of its contents but will post a story in detail when more information becomes available.—Ed.

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Following numerous ascents of K2 (8611m) yesterday, a serac fall has pulled fixed ropes off of the traverse and "Bottleneck," trapping about twelve descending climbers above.

Earlier today Serbian climber Dren Mandic likely perished after a fall at the Bottleneck.

Dutch climber Cas van de Gevel and Pemba Gyalje Sherpa were able to climb through the damaged section without fixed ropes; they are recovering in Camp 4. The other climbers, mostly Dutch and Korean, are trapped high on the mountain for the time being. A joint-expedition rescue is being organized, and at least six climbers are headed toward the Bottleneck with more rope.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Sources: David Falt, www.noritk2.nl, www.vojvodineanexpedition.net, www.mounteverest.net

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web08x/n...-serac-trapped

[cortez]

) -- Two Dutch climbers who survived a deadly ice avalanche on K2, the world's second highest mountain on the Pakistan-China border, were airlifted to a Pakistani hospital on Monday, the team's spokesman told CNN.


Twenty-two climbers, mostly foreigners, reached K-2's summit Friday before a deadly avalanche struck.

The two survivors, Norit expedition leader Wilco Van Rooijen and Cas Van de Gevel, had been "stuck up high on the mountain" since the avalanche on Friday, team spokesman Michel Schuurman said.

The tragedy left 11 climbers dead, including a sherpa who had gone up to assist in rescue efforts, according to mountaineers working with the climbers involved.

The two Dutchmen, who arrived at base camp on Saturday, were flown to a military hospital in Skardu, Pakistan on Monday, the country's Ministry of Tourism secretary said.

According to a Web log offering frequent updates on the rescue effort, Van Rooijen -- an accomplished climber who has scaled Mt. Everest without supplementary oxygen -- may be suffering from frostbite "and is not out of danger yet."

"Still, this survival is bound to go down as one of the greatest mountaineering tales in K2's history," K2climb.net said. More about the dangers of climbing K2 »

An Italian climber, Marco Confortola, also survived the ordeal and will be airlifted once he reached a lower altitude, Shahzad Qaiser said.

"So the search is on and I am very hopeful that he (Confortola) will be able to descend ... where he could be rescued," Qaiser said.

The avalanche struck down the safety ropes that the climbers planned to use to descend the mountain, Schuurman said.

"They had to descend without any safety lines and in that descent we know that some climbers have slipped down and their whereabouts are unknown," Schuurman said.


He said the rescue team may ask Pakistani authorities "to send an airplane that could make a circle around the mountain to see if they can locate anyone."

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Web site: k2climb.net
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According to Fredrik Strang, who assisted in the rescue efforts, the avalanche killed 11 climbers from different expeditions who had come together to make it to the peak of K2, which many climbers consider even more technically challenging than world's tallest peak, Mt. Everest.

Strang said Sunday the death toll was not expected to rise, because it was not believed anyone else was missing.

The site of the accident, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) up the mountain, is what climbers call the "Dead Zone," because the body would never recover if stuck in such freezing conditions with so little oxygen, said Pat Falvey, a climber in Ireland who is in touch with the climbers and posting updates online for one of the climbing expeditions. Map of the area »

The climbers were Dutch, Irish, Italian, French, Norwegian, Korean, and Nepalese citizens, Falvey said.

While the climbers and rescuers who made it down safely were not immediately in condition to speak publicly, they told Strang and Falvey what had happened.

On Friday, 17 climbers reached the summit together -- one of the largest groups ever to reach the summit simultaneously -- said Falvey. As they were descending, a "moving river of ice broke loose... like an iceberg breaking loose from a glacier," and it knocked down the fixed rope that the group had been using to move safely from the higher reaches to a camp at a lower altitude, he said.

The rope's collapse knocked down three climbers, sweeping them away in an avalanche of ice and killing them, he said.

"Not only did it wipe away the fixed ropes, but it brought the whole slope into icy dangerous conditions." iReport.com: Ever tried to climb Pakistan's K2?

Two climbers managed to make it to base camp, but many of those stranded decided the best course of action was to wait and hope rescuers could put up ropes and make it up, Falvey said.

As time went on and rescuers didn't come, the remaining climbers decided their only chance at survival was to go into the treacherous, icy conditions of the mountain's bottleneck and try to make it through. But as they did, some climbers fell to their deaths.


A few managed to survive, with the help of rescuers, Falvey and Strang told CNN.

It is the deadliest incident on K2 since 1986 when 13 of 27 climbers died after summiting the peak, according to Outside Magazine

[SkinnyMoose]

It's official 11 climbers dead

http://skinnymoose.com/adventurist/2...dly-accidents/

Too late for the 11 now. That's 11 corpsicles pasted to the face of K2. Tough Luck - Game Over.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080804/...ssing_climbers

[Olmstein]

Thanks for posting the article, Cortez.

Although I would never climb anything more dangerous than a flight of stairs, I have friends who are into climbing, I don't wish any harm to any climbers.

[Goldhedge]

I have a buddy that climbs. Fanatic!

He says, "If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much room..."

There was a weekly show of climbers tackling Everest on Discovery (I Think). It was interesting. It's been on two seasons so far.

Dutch survivor of K2 avalanche describes ordeal

By STEPHEN GRAHAM, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Blinded by the glare off the snow and ice, attempting a perilous descent down K2 to save his life, the Dutch mountaineer came upon three Korean climbers.

One sat dazed in the snow. Another held a rope. The third was suspended at the other end, hanging upside down.

"They were trying to survive," the Dutch mountaineer, Wilco van Rooijen, recalled Monday, "but I had also to survive because I was getting snow blind." He said he offered help but they declined, believing help was already on the way.

Speaking by phone with The Associated Press from a military hospital where he was being treated for frostbitten toes, van Rooijen provided a gripping account of his ordeal on K2 before he and another Dutch climber were plucked to safety Monday.

At least 11 people were presumed dead after an avalanche on K2, the world's second-highest mountain. An Italian who was also stranded made his way down the slope with a rescue team after telling a colleague, "I am surely not going to give up now."

The Ministry of Tourism said the 11 believed dead in one of mountaineering's worst disasters included three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway. It was not clear whether the three Koreans were the same described by van Rooijen.

K2, which straddles Pakistan and China in the Karakoram range, is regarded by mountaineers as far more challenging than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. K2's knife-edged ridges and icy slopes are steeper and prone to both avalanches and sudden and severe storms.

Van Rooijen said several expeditions had waited through July for good weather to scale the 28,250-foot peak and decided to go for the summit when winds dropped on Friday. As many as 30 climbers set off.

The first setback was when the climbers had to reposition fixed ropes that an advance party had mislaid across a treacherous gully 1,150 feet below the summit, he said.

"We were astonished," van Rooijen told the AP. "We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they didn't trust it any more."

Still, many pressed on, he said. They reached the summit only shortly before dark. In the rush to get down, groups including his own drifted apart.

As many as 10 of the fastest climbers were back in the steep gully, known as the Bottleneck, when a huge chunk of ice crashed down from above, sending a Norwegian and two Nepali sherpas to their deaths.

The ice swept away some of the ropes, making it even more dangerous for those caught above, he said.

The famed Bottleneck and a tricky section of ice known as the Traverse have been the scene of many accidents and deaths before, but not all climbers agree fixed ropes are needed to negotiate those sections. If an avalanche hits, there's little anyone can do.

Van Rooijen, among the stragglers, said he spent the night huddled in the snow with Gerard McDonnell, an Irishman, and Marco Confortola, the Italian who was making his way down the slope on Monday.

By the morning, clouds had descended, making it almost impossible for the climbers to locate each other or see their way. Van Rooijen left the other two and managed to pick his way through the gully.

He said others suffered fatal falls in a similar attempt. The Pakistan government did not give details of how the 11 climbers had perished.

McDonnell, who had taken shelter with van Rooijen at the Bottleneck, was among those believed dead. The 37-year-old was the first Irish person to reach the summit of K2.

Confortola was in satellite phone contact and climbing down on foot, despite frostbite, helped by a team from a base camp. Shahzad Qaiser, a top ministry official, said another helicopter rescue of Confortola would be attempted Tuesday morning, weather permitting.

The Italian had reached a camp at 19,000 feet by Monday evening and was eating and getting oxygen, a guide at base camp told Italy's SKY TG 24 TV. ANSA news agency reported that he had spoken to his brother Luigi on the phone.

"Up there it was hell," the Italian mountaineer was quoted as telling his brother. "My hands are fine, while my feet are black from frostbite. Anyway I can walk and I want to descend to the base camp."

Agostino Da Polenza of Everest-K2-CNR, an Italy-based high-altitude scientific research group, also spoke to Confortola on Monday and quoted him as saying: "I never gave up in my life, I am surely not going to give up now."

Van Rooijen, 40, placed some fault with organizers and fellow climbers. On the fogbound glacier below the Bottleneck, he said, he spent hours searching for Camp Four, where a Nepali team member was waiting for him.

He said other expeditions had failed to keep a promise to mark the way with flags. His team had hauled up 400 yards of the rope for the gully, he said.

"The plan was OK," he said, "but finally some climbers did not take their responsibility and then accidents like this happen very easy," he said.

Van Rooijen said a Serbian expedition was part of this plan, but Nazir Sabir, whose Alpine Club of Pakistan helped organize the Serbian expedition, said he was unaware of any such arrangement.

Sabir, who became a national hero after climbing K2 in 1981, said 22 people had scaled K2 on Saturday, and as they made their way down an avalanche carried away roped fixed about 1,150 feet below the peak, sweeping some climbers to their deaths and stranding others where they would likely succumb to exposure.

By the time he stumbled into the next camp on Sunday, where rescuers were waiting with tents, food and water, van Rooijen said he was delirious. He was flown to safety on Monday morning in a Pakistan army-operated helicopter with fellow Dutchman Cas Van de Gevel.

The reported toll from the avalanche was the highest from a single incident on K2 since at least 1995, when seven climbers perished after being caught in a fierce storm. About 280 people have climbed K2 since 1954, when the summit was first reached. Dozens have died trying.

Van Rooijen, who suffered a broken arm and head injuries from a rockfall during an attempt on K2 in 1995, said his latest ordeal left him with severe frostbite that could cost him several toes. He said he would continue climbing.

The French climber presumed dead, Hugues d'Aubarede, relayed an account of the climb that was posted on a blog. His last message, from the foot of the Bottleneck, was: "I would love it if everyone could contemplate this ocean of mountains and glaciers. They put me through the wringer, but it's so beautiful. The night will be long but beautiful."

One survivor made in down today. All others presumed to be corpsicles. End of story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080805/...rGI5qrOUtvaA8F