Italian survivor of K2 disaster reaches base camp

[August 05, 2008]  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- After a painful descent on frostbitten feet, the last survivor of the mountaineering disaster that killed 11 climbers on K2 reached base camp Tuesday as cloud and snow prevented a helicopter rescue.

Italian Marco Confortola was stranded on the world's second highest peak after an ice fall nearly four days ago.

"I am happy to be alive," Confortola told the Everest-K2-CNR, an Italy-based high-altitude scientific research group, during a phone call from the camp where he was treated by an American doctor.

The group's spokeswoman, Francesca Steffanoni, said the mountaineer was reported to be in good condition, despite his blackened, frostbitten toes.

The 28,250-foot peak lies near Pakistan's northern border with China. It is regarded by mountaineers as more challenging to conquer than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak. K2 is steeper, rockier and more prone to sudden, severe weather.

Two Pakistani choppers have been standby at the nearest town of Skardu since Monday to retrieve Confortola, but were grounded because of the poor conditions. The base camp lies at just above 16,400 feet, considerably below the threshold at which they are able to fly safely.

"He (Confortola) is out of danger. He will stay at the base camp for a night, and the army's pilots will fly helicopters on Wednesday morning to rescue him if the weather has improved there," Pakistan tourism ministry official Shaukat Zaman said.

Confortola managed to descend to a camp at 19,000 feet on Monday, helped by three others, including an American climber. The Italian took food, fluids and oxygen, and then continued his climb down K2 on Tuesday.

Agostino Da Polenza of the Everest-K2-CNR group quoted Confortola as telling him he was feeling well but feeling pain in his lower limbs.

On Monday, helicopters plucked two frostbitten Dutch climbers from base camp. As many as 30 climbers started the ascent on Friday and all are accounted for.

Pakistan has listed 11 climbers missing and believed dead: three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway.

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

Van Rooijen told The Associated Press on Monday that advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places, including in a treacherous gully known as "The Bottleneck," about 1,150 feet 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.

Among the 11 listed as dead are Gerard McDonnell, a teammate of van Rooijen and the first Irish person to reach the summit of K2.

Friend Pat Falvey said McDonnell's family "are holding up well and are very proud of Ger's achievement and are still in total shock in relation to the fact that he may not be coming back."

He said they did not expect to get McDonnell's body back.

"At high altitude at over 8,000 meters (26,250 feet), it is too dangerous to mount a rescue to have the bodies returned," Falvey said.

About 280 people have summitted K2 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 occurring during the descent.

[Associated Press; By MUNIR AHMAD]

Associated Press writers Stephen Graham in Islamabad and Marta Falconi in Rome contributed to this report.

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