by Melissa Thomasma – Alpinist.com Read Luca Signorelli´s translation of Marco Confortola´s account at UKClimbing.com, here. With the assistance of an American mountaineer and two Sherpas,Italian climber Marco Confortola was able to reach base camp and iscurrently awaiting helicopter rescue. As soon as weather permits,Confortola will be picked up from base camp and flown to Skardu,Pakistan, where he will receive advanced medical care. He is said to besuffering from extreme frostbite on his feet, like the other survivorsof the avalanche. “Up there it was hell. During the descent, beyond 8000 meters, due tothe altitude and the exhaustion I even fell asleep in the snow, andwhen I woke up I could not figure out where I was,” Confortola told hisbrother Luigi in Italy via satellite phone. Last weekend Dutch climbers Wilco van Rooijen and Cas van de Gevelwere flown to a military hospital in Skardu; they are receivingtreatment for their own frostbite. “Everything was going well to Camp 4 and on summit attempteverything went wrong,” van Rooijen reflected. He said that whileearlier expeditions had fixed lines through the Bottleneck, they hadplaced them at incorrect places, making them unsafe. “We wereastonished. We had to move [the fixed lines]. That took of course,many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust [thelines] anymore,” he explained. Read the full report by Melissa Thomasma on the Alpinist Website ( Source: Alpinist )
