Rescued climber tells of K2 ordeal
A frost-bitten Dutch climber today gave the first graphic account of the conditions on K-2 that led to one of mountaineering’s worst disasters.
Wilco Van Rooijen was one of two men plucked by helicopter from the world’s second-highest mountain after an avalanche and exposure left at least 11 others presumed dead.
Van Rooijen blamed mistakes in preparation for the final ascent.
“Everything was going well to Camp Four and on the summit attempt everything went wrong,” he said in a military hospital where he was being treated for frost-bitten toes.
K-2, which lies near Pakistan’s northern border with China, is regarded by mountaineers as more challenging to conquer than Everest, the world’s highest peak. K-2 is steeper, rockier and more prone to sudden, severe weather.
Van Rooijen said several expeditions waited through July for good weather to scale K-2 and decided to go for the summit when winds dropped on Friday. In all, about two dozen climbers made the ascent, officials said.
However, Van Rooijen said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,250-foot peak, including in part a treacherous gully known as “The Bottleneck".
“We were astonished. We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore,” said Van Rooijen, 40.
He said those who went on reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest climbers descended in darkness across The Bottleneck, about 1,148 feet below the summit, a huge column of ice fell. Rooijen said a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness.
The Ministry of Tourism released a list of 11 climbers believed dead: three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway.
It was not clear how they all died. At least two fell on their way up the mountain, before the avalanche.
Van Rooijen said after the avalanche there was a “whiteout” on the mountain meaning cloud had descended, making it virtually impossible to see the precipitous route down. But he pushed on as he was starting to suffer snow blindness.
On his descent, he said he passed three South Koreans who had suffered an accident. They declined his offer of help.
“There was a Korean guy hanging upside down. There was a second Korean guy who held him with a rope but he was also in shock and then a third guy was there also, and they were trying to survive but I had also to survive,” he said.
Italian climber, Marco Confortola, descended to 20,340 feet but bad weather forced officials to abort an attempted helicopter rescue today. Confortola, who has made contact by satellite phone and is believed to suffer from frostbite, said he would continue his descent.
“Up there it was hell. During the descent, beyond 8,000 meters (26,000 feet), due to the altitude and the exhaustion I even fell asleep in the snow and when I woke up I could not figure out where I was,” Confortola, told his brother Luigi on the phone.
“My hands are fine, while my feet are black from frostbite. Anyway I can walk and I want to descend to the base camp.”
About 280 people have climbed K-2 since 1954, when it was first conquered by Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedell. Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them during the descent.
