Climbers are still coming down K2's slopes. Image courtesy of Norit K2 expedition (click to enlarge).
Marco Confortola is assisted from C2 to BC today. File image of Marco courtesy of his website (click to enlarge).
Carlos Soria (left in the image) aborted his attempt on Hidden Peak. Tente Lagunilla (right) summited GII last week. Image courtesy of Tente's website (click to enlarge).
Alfredo García's BP summit pic, courtesy of Aitor and Alberto's blog (click to enlarge).
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Pakistan wrap-up: Wilco and Cas airlifted from K2's BC, Strang's claims, Moro bags virgin peak
Posted: Aug 04, 2008 12:15 pm EDT
(K2Climb.net) To their credit, media reports yesterday quickly changed their statements from "11 confirmed dead" to 11 "feared" dead on K2. The really good news is that 2 reportedly missing Austrians were found in BC. The exact number of fatalities is expected to be confirmed within a few days, after all rescue attempts have been exhausted and a head-count has been performed among the teams.
Askari Aviation reports that Wilco, Cas and Nabeen were urgently evacuated earlier today. Norit reports that Marco is still on his way down.
K2: Wilco and Cas evacuated – Marco not yet in BC
Wilco and Cas reached BC yesterday together with Pemba, assisted by a support group which included their team mates Roeland and Jelle. Extent of the climbers’ frostbites is yet unknown.
At the team’s latest update, Italian Marco Confortola was still being helped down to BC. He climbed down from C4 to C2 yesterday.
A team of climbers (including Dutch team member Roeland) went up from BC to C1 on the Cesen route yesterday, loaded with equipment.
The crew in BC is also arranging a plane to fly by the flanks of K2, hoping to locate more missing climbers on both routes. Some climbers were reportedly still on their way down the Abruzzi Spur yesterday.
The Norit team also reported that sadly, Norwegian Rolf Bae's death has been been confirmed by wife Cecilie Skog.
Fredrik Strang
Unfortunately, while rescue attempts were ongoing this weekend Swedish Fredrik Strang reportedly called to media accusing the affected climbers of being inexperienced, while offering heroic rescue stories about himself.
In addition to other Himalayan climbs, Rolf Bae topped out the technical Trango Tower in Pakistan just before his K2 expedition in a climb that lasted 27 straight days on the wall. Cecilie has summited Everest and both have done a number of groundbreaking polar expeditions. The couple summited K2, but according to Cecilie, Rolf was buried by an avalanche on descent. In addition to sudden storms; avalanches and falling rock/ice are K2's signature objective dangers, unrelated to climbing skills.
Norit expedition leader Dutch Wilco Van Rooijen was on his third attempt on K2 and led the climb on the mountain. He is also one of the very few to have summited Everest without supplementary oxygen, and done several striking polar journeys among his many achievements.
Fredrik Strang has incorrectly claimed a world-fastest Seven Summit record, with "proper paperwork" to the Guinness Book of World Records as base for his record claim. Also other of his claims are under scrutiny.
Media is therefore cautioned to hold degrading statements until all involved can defend themselves.
Broad Peak: Zerain’s no-go for the double header
Alberto Zerain has called off his attempt on Broad peak. The expedition is packing up and heading home. Zerain summited K2 on August 1st at around 3:00 pm local time, and reached C3 before the falling serac buried the fixed ropes. Alberto’s mates on Broad Peak, Alfredo Garcia and Aitor Las Hayas had mixed success. Alfredo reportedly topped out while Aitor was forced to abort.
Gasherbrums: Summit reports
Spaniards Tente Lagunilla and Ignacio García Pinacho summited GII on July 30th.
News is still expected from Daniela Teixeira and Paulo Roxo – attempting Hidden Peak last week. Spaniard Carlos Soria and his team turned around on their summir push, due to bad conditions. They are currently home-bound.
Just in: Simone Moro bags virgin peak!
"Beka Brakai Chhok (6940m) is not a virgin mountain anymore…" just reported Simone Moro in an email to ExplorersWeb. Check in later today for a special report.
Links to teams in Pakistan:
K2
Wilco van Rooijen's Norit K2 expedition
Serbian Vojvodinean expedition
Gerard McDonnell's dispatches
Marco Confortola's updates
Singapore expedition
Cecilie Skog's updates
Nick Rice's dispatches
Mike Farris expedition's website
Hugues d'Aubarede
Zerain's team blog.
Broad Peak
Badia & Mauricio's website
Lina Quesada's blog
Panzeri & Nardi's Mountain Freedom
Gasherbrums
Tente Lagunilla
Daniela Teixeira's dispatches
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