Posted: Jun 24, 2009 07:52 am EDT
(K2Climb.net/Madrid) Italian Michele Fait fell to his death yesterday while skiing down from K2's C2 on the SSE spur.

Together with mate Fredrik Ericsson, Fait was on his second partial descent down K2's slopes, when he suddenly fell, witnesses in BC reported. The news has been confirmed by Fait's local outfitter Muhammad Ali to ExWeb correspondent in Islamabad, Karrar Haidri.

"While on descent, the worst scenario possible happened - Fait plummeted," climber Sean Wisedale reported from BC. "Ericsson was skiing lower down the slopes and after he had seen Fait falling, began to haul upwards to get to him. At Base Camp we watched, unsure if the fall had been fatal or not. We started to build a make-do stretcher and prepared to assist with the rescue efforts. Our leader Fabrizio headed out back up the middle of the glacier. We watched as Ericsson and Fabrizio reached Fait’s limp body 20 minutes later and began to lower him down to the base of the route."

According to reports, there was nothing rescuers could do, but to confirm Michele's death. Fait’s recovery was interrupted later that day due to high avalanche risk.

A new attempt to recover the body was performed today. "We left base camp at 07h00 this morning," Wisedale reported in his latest update today. "The weather was perfect but there was a wind building from the west. Wim, Wilky, Jake, Fabrizio, Tunc, Dave, Fredrik (Michele’s skiing partner), Dave from the German expedition and I set out. His remains have been wrapped and buried. 9 strong men stood in respect of a fellow mountain man. God bless Michele Fait – may he rest in peace."

Michele Fait, from Trentino, hoped to climb K2 without supplementay O2 and then ski down from the summit, teaming up with Swedish Fredrik Ericsson. He had previously summited GII and Shisha Pangma, and had attempted K2 for the first time back in 2004.

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