Another Missing climber on Everest: Italian Everest/K2 2004 expedition Update

- Everest after the snowstorm

This is the latest update of the day from ABC on Everest, where all of the climbers of the K2-2004 expedition are currently reunited. Two good snapshots of the before and after the storm are witness to the current conditions on the mountain.

May 21, 2004 – 19:30 hours at base camp (15:30 Italian time)

Everest remains invisible, totally wrapped in a curtain of clouds, while snow continues to fall on the tents of ABC, where all of the climbers of the K2-2004 expedition are currently reunited.  A little further down the mountain, amongst the tents of 20 other expeditions, it is difficult to know yet who is missing in roll call.

The confirmed dead, for the moment, are still 4:  Three South Koreans and a Japanese woman who slipped and fell at the Second Step.  We were worried about the welfare of 2 Italian climbers, Giuseppe Pompili of Bologna and Adriano Dal Cin, of Conegliano, whom we had not heard from in several days.  Pompili made his descent this morning, after three days spent at over 8000 meters.  He recounted that he had reached the summit on the 19th of May, and that he then descended to camp III.  On the 20th he tried to convince his companion to descend with him to camp II.

Dal Cin, instead, departed up the mountain to attempt to reach the summit on his own, a rather absurd decision considering the conditions on the mountain at that point in time.  Since then, nothing more has been heard from him.  Giuseppe Pompili was the co-leader of a mini-expedition to Everest

“In these last couple of days we have seen everything,” Soro Dorotei, the vice-co-leader of the expedition K2-2004 responds brusquely.  We began our preparations for this expedition beginning in the first months of 2003.  We coordinate our logistics

with both ABC and our home office in Bergamo, Italy, so that each day we would have the best information available so as not to put our climbers to unnecessary risks.  Around here, on the other hand, there are people who have never even been on a mountain and don’t even know how to latch on their crampons, and they expect to reach the summit of Everest! They have no respect for these mountains!  But all it takes is one small error, and one pays very dearly for it

Earlier

Last updates from Everest: Mountaineers who were missing yesterday at Everest North ridge are now back to base camps. Yesterday many people have died:  three Korean and one Japanese climbers.

May 21 2004 - 13.00 base camp time (09.00 Italian time): Today at Everest North ridge it is snowing, but weather has got better. Yesterday four mountaineers have died, as Soro Dorotei, K2 2004 vice expedition leader, could confirm to us today. From the advanced base camp, where all K2 2004 team members have gathered: "According to the information we gathered three Korean mountaineers have died between camp III and the summit. A Japanese mountaineer has literally collapsed and died after summiting".

Good news regarding all those who were missing in the higher camps: "This morning we talked and shared views with other groups at advanced base camp and, according to what we could ascertain, large part of sherpas and mountaineers have returned or are on their way back from higher camps".

There are news also on the two Italians who yesterday were at camp III to try and summit Everest "This morning we met one of them, the one who had returned from camp III after giving up the ascent. He told us that his friend was trying to reach to the summit  but had no further news"

"I think that many people could make it and stay alive thanks to the weather which was relatively warm- Soro says  - There was a blizzard, of  course, but temperatures never went below-20(C°), which is mild for Everest"

K2 2004 members can now focus once again on their goal. Tomorrow weather permitting, mountaineers will leave, once again  for the higher camps, trying to reach Everest Summit.

Dispatches

copyright Italian expedition Everest/K2 2004 expedition Expedition

 

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