Mr Mingote, 49, was based with another team and had been descending to K2's base camp when he slipped and fell. An experienced mountaineer, Mr Mingote had previously climbed seven of the world's so-called "ers", including Everest.
He had been attempting to summit K2 without oxygen but became severely fatigued, forcing him to abandon the expedition. Image source, Nimsdai Purja. The Nepali climbers are the first to summit K2 during its dangerous winter season. Left out to freeze on K2 K2 climber aborts solo winter ascent Irish climbers conquer peak within 24 hours of each other.
Image source, Alex Gavan. K2 is one of 14 mountains in the world more than 8, metres 26,ft in height. You might also be interested in:. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. We unrolled our sleeping bags in the rug-lined living room of a mud-brick house that belonged to the local mullah.
Gerlinde and Ralf were thrilled to be approaching K2 from the north for the first time. The first night in camp Ralf brought out a composite portrait of the mountain made using satellite mapping data and photographs. Maxut studied the daunting details of the North Ridge, which had been first climbed by a Japanese party in ; he and Vassiliy had spent many weeks on the ridge in , before bad weather and shortages of food and water forced them to retreat.
On the third day we crossed Aghil Pass, at 4, meters, and descended into the valley of the Shaksgam River, which rises from the glaciers below the Gasherbrum peaks. Giant terraces of mud-packed rock framed a broad, gray stone plain braided with half a dozen or more channels of silty water. We crossed on the camels. On the fifth morning, after an hour of walking, everyone suddenly stopped and stared up at the cloudless sky to the south as if flabbergasted by a UFO.
There it was: K2, a colossus erupting out of the earth, its ice-draped walls shimmering in the morning sun like a mirage. It seemed unreal, and yet even from miles off its power was palpable. It was easy to understand the allure it held for mountaineers, no matter that its beauty was imbued with death and its frozen flanks were full of bones and buried bodies.
And just as easy to understand why armchair mountaineers might shrink from the thing in dread, and wonder about the balance of reason and desire in those determined to climb it. Her K2 history was shadowed with hard memories. She had made three expeditions to the southern side—the last in At the base of the steep gully known as the Bottleneck he stopped to set a piton, and as he was hammering it, he lost his footing.
He plunged past Gerlinde in an instant and was gone. In shock, she climbed down as far as she could but found only a ski before the slope vanished into the misty void. He was At the end of the year she and Ralf took a vacation in Thailand. For four weeks they lived by the sea. They ate fresh fish. They climbed on sea cliffs where falls ended in warm, green water. People had always asked her why she kept going back to K2. The loss was savage but not the mountain. Around 7 a. It was a cloudless day, the weather like a gift.
But with only a third of the oxygen at sea level, snow up to their chests in places, and stinging blasts of spindrift that forced them to stop and avert their faces, they made painfully slow progress.
Gerlinde reached Ralf on the radio at Advanced Base Camp. Since turning back above Camp I, he had devoted himself to supporting the summit party, passing on weather forecasts, advice, and encouragement. Though miles away, he could see that the best place to cross the couloir was below the lip of a long, thin crevasse that ran the width of the slope, where the snow tended to be not as deep and the natural fracture in the slope would lessen the chance of the climbers triggering an avalanche.
He helped guide them to the crevasse and watched as their figures, no bigger than commas on a page of paper, began edging across the couloir under a series of seracs—bulges of ice that protruded from the degree slope like dormers from a roof.
The seracs might protect them if avalanches swept down from above. Nearing the rocky left edge, they turned to ascend directly up the slope until they came to a final serac at around 8, meters. On the radio Ralf urged Gerlinde to return to Camp IV for the night now that they had broken the trail and knew the way.
They had known when they set out that morning that their only chance for the summit might require a bivouac. The possibility had prompted Gerlinde to add the extra weight of a three-pound, two-person tent to her rucksack, as well as a pot and stove, and the same tacit understanding had prompted Dariusz, Maxut, and Vassiliy to tuck extra stove-gas canisters and food into their rucksacks.
Days later Maxut tried to explain their state of mind to Tommy. I risked everything, even my family, my wife, my son, my daughter, everything. With the sun low in the west, they stopped in the lee of the last serac to prepare a site for the tiny tent. For an hour and 20 minutes they hacked at the ice, until they had a level platform four feet wide, five feet long.
They anchored the tent with two ice screws and a pair of ice axes. By they were all inside, sitting on their rucksacks, a stove hanging from the ceiling with a pot of melting snow. Gerlinde made some tomato soup. The temperature was minus 13 Fahrenheit.
The plan was to rest until midnight, then resume the push for the prize, now so close. At one in the morning Vassiliy, Maxut, and Gerlinde strapped on their crampons and by the light of their headlamps started up the steep grade above the tent. Dariusz was still inside getting ready. They retreated to the tent to try to get warm and wait for sunrise. Gerlinde shivered uncontrollably.
It was hard to believe that eight weeks earlier they had all been sweltering in degree temperatures in the Shaksgam Valley, and Maxut had been rubbing yogurt on his sunburned legs. They set out again around 7 a. It was now or never. In her rucksack Gerlinde had spare batteries, extra mittens, toilet paper, a second pair of sunglasses, bandages, drops for snow blindness, cortisone, a syringe; for her main sponsor she also carried a flag with the name of an Austrian oil company.
For herself, she had a tiny copper box containing a figure of the Buddha, which she planned to bury on the summit. Inside her suit she tucked the half liter of water she had managed to melt; in her pack it would freeze. They worked their way up the slope toward a meter ramp of snow that angled up to the summit ridge. They were still suffering from the cold but by 11 a. For the first 20 meters they were exhilarated to discover they sank only to their shins. But soon the snow was chest deep.
Where they had switched leads to break trail every 50 steps, they now had to switch every 10, with Maxut and Vassiliy taking extra turns. Desperate for an easier way, they stopped climbing in single file at one point. From below, Ralf was astonished to see their track split into three lines as Gerlinde, Vassiliy, and Maxut searched for better footing. Ahead lay a band of snow-patched rocks tilted at 60 degrees.
Steep as it was, it proved easier to negotiate. Climbing single file again, Gerlinde changed places with Vassiliy and sank only up to her knees. With a surge of energy and hope she clambered out of the ramp and onto the ridge, where the wind-packed snow was like a sidewalk.
It was p. She could see the summit dome. She sipped from her water bottle. Her throat was cracked; it hurt to swallow. It was too cold to sweat, but they were all getting dehydrated just from panting for air. When Vassiliy caught up, he said she should go on to the summit, he would wait for Maxut.
There were mountains in every direction. Mountains she had climbed. Mountains that had stolen the lives of her friends and nearly claimed hers too. But never had she invested so much in a mountain as the one under her boots at last.
Alone, with the world at her feet, she turned from one point of the compass to another. It was so strange on one hand to be extremely exhausted and on the other to be getting so much energy from the view. Fifteen minutes later Maxut and Vassiliy arrived, shoulder to shoulder. Everyone embraced. Half an hour later Dariusz staggered up, his hands suffering from having taken his gloves off to change batteries on the video camera.
It was 7 p. Travel New Year holidays: 10 international destinations open to Indians. Travel These festivals in November are the best reasons to travel. Join Us On Facebook Close. Poll of the day Which is the oldest Ratha Yatra in the world? Vote Now. Comments 0. Be the first one to comment. Read All Comments Post a Comment. Count: We have sent you a verification email.
To verify, just follow the link in the message.
0コメント