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Last survivor limps into base camp after K2 fiasco

A frostbitten Italian climber limped into K2 base camp yesterday after an ice fall that killed 11 others, but swirling cloud prevented helicopters from plucking him from the world’s second-highest peak.

Marco Confortola, believed to be the only survivor of Friday’s catastrophic avalanche, finally hobbled into the 5,200m camp with his toes blackened by exposure to sub-zero temperatures, officials said.

Shaukat Zaman, a tourism ministry official, said the other 11 climbers were all presumed dead.

“Only some miracle can save any of them,” he said.

Confortola reached the summit on Friday before the avalanche struck.

“The danger is over,” said Ashraf Aman, head of mountaineering company Adventure Tours Pakistan, which has played a key role in rescue operations.

“Marco has reached the main base camp, he is recovering. The base camp has facilities to provide him with immediate medical help like oxygen and drugs, so he will improve gradually,” Aman told reporters.

An Italy-based member of Confortola’s climbing team, Agostino Da Polenza, told Sky TG24 television that the mountaineer had reached base camp and was awaiting evacuation by helicopter.

Slowed by his frostbitten feet, the 37-year-old Confortola had spent four nights trying to reach base camp and was helped down by Pakistani high-altitude porters who managed to get to him on Monday.

But rescuers said they feared the choppers would not be able to take off at all yesterday because of storms and thick cloud around the mountain, which climbers regard as tougher and more dangerous to scale than Everest. K2 is steeper, rockier and more prone to sudden, severe weather.

“I don’t think a rescue mission would be possible today,” said Colonel Ilyas Mirza, a senior official of Askari Aviation, an army-linked company based in the northern town of Skardu that operates the rescue choppers.

“The weather is still bad, flying in Skardu and beyond was not possible this morning,” Mirza said.

But he said that the helicopters, specially equipped for high-altitude missions, remained on standby.

“Our helicopters are ready, waiting for an improvement in the situation. They may try to make an attempt this evening if the weather improves even for a few hours,” he said.

Army helicopters on Monday rescued two Dutch mountaineers from K2. They tried to reach the Italian on Monday as well, but were prevented by storms.

Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a Frenchman died in Friday’s avalanche, the worst disaster ever to happen on the mountain.

A pillar of ice broke away in a steep gully known as the Bottleneck near the summit and swept away fixed lines used by the mountaineers as they made their descent.

One of the Dutchmen, Wilco Van Rooijen, blamed mistakes in preparation for the final ascent — not just the avalanche — for one of mountaineering’s worst disasters.

“Everything was going well to Camp Four, and on summit attempt everything went wrong,” Van Rooijen told reporters by phone on Monday from a military hospital where he was being treated for frostbitten toes.

Van Rooijen said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places, including in a treacherous gully known as “The Bottleneck,” about 350m below the summit.

That caused hours of delays, so climbers only reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest mountaineers descended, a huge serac, or column of ice, fell. The ice swept away some of the ropes, making it even more dangerous for those caught above.
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