K2 Documentary - Fatal Altitude Tragedy During Climbing K2 Mountain

the last survivor of a fatal Avalanche is helicoptered off k2 one of the climbing world's most demanding mountains you couldn't have asked for a better day in a million years and only on k2 does a perfect summer day become a deadly day disaster hit during the descent of a steep gully known as the bottleneck the Sun was shining it was brilliant still in the summit with what happened on the way back I still can't believe 11 people are dead others stranded on the second-highest peak in the world you're leaving a battleground you're losing a war it's the deadliest day in this mountains history we were all withering away we were all slowly dying [Music] in June 2008 an international team of Mountaineers set off on a journey to summit k2 armed with video cameras they'll record their attempt to conquer the unforgiving mountain it's k2 international expedition I'm from Sweden we are many from us we are from Nepal Australia [Applause] [Music] the journey to k2 stretches from skardu Airport in Pakistan on to the Karakoram highway the highest international paved road in the world [Music] after many hours by Jeep the road ends in the town of Vasco from there it's a long walk through deep valleys narrow paths and rocky hillsides after eight days of treacherous terrain at the far northern end of Pakistan close to the Chinese border surrounded by some of the highest peaks in the world lies k2 when I assault k2 for the first time I don't think I've ever been so scared and happy at the same time looking at a mountain it's this creepy feeling between one thing something and trying to run away from something how does it look Fred Wow and holy it's such an imposing mountain k2 always reminds me of a child's drawing of a mountain just harsh and very pointy it's imposing it is really imposing and very it was serene but also very filled with fear actually I mean there was fear it was real fear [Music] [Music] there are four main camps on the way to the k2 summit lower oxygen levels on the mountain mean every climber must stop on their way up to acclimatize to the different altitudes the final push to the summit usually starts from Camp four leading through a technically difficult and notorious passage known as the bottleneck from there a roughly 1,000 foot climb leads to the summit [Music] [Music] there's a simplicity of life that you have when you're climbing and that simplicity of life is you're really focused on you know the basics of life food shelter clothing warmth in your environment what's around you being able to put everything else out of your mind and not focus on the distractions that happen in everyday life and you're also focused on other people and your team members because you really are trusting your life in other people's hands with every step you take and you know the thing with climbing is once you reach the top once you reach this goal that you've planned for six months nine months a year you realize there's a bigger goal which is to come down at times they're conflicting goals because sometimes reaching the top means you might not come down and so you got a way out what goal is more important to you and so for me I look at it as it's the epitome of goal-setting and achievement it it it's so stark and so clear and so absolute oops our pretty twisted huh yeah I guess the reason why I climb is to explore a deeper sense of self embarking on any kind of climb tests me in so many different ways that I come away from the experience every time a changed individual I'm tested physically for sure you tested mentally and I'm also serving as physician and the team I'm tested professionally as well taking care of members of our team or other teams I guess it's that challenge of trying to dig deep within yourself discover the the best and the worst in you and and see how you come out of it I feel [Music] [Music] arriving at camp to the expedition gets a taste of the unpredictable weather systems on k2 weather's better we going down from Camp 2 to base camp there's not much we can do and it's gonna datoria it even worse winds gonna pick up so we want to get the heck out of here because something before something really nasty happens everybody talks about the rapid weather change that occurs on k2 and that's pretty much what happened weather could change on a dime there isn't a lot of long good stretches of weather high up on the mountain and it makes it that much more dangerous cuz you're not your visibility isn't as high and you can't see rock falling you can't see ice fall and you know if you're climbing in a whiteout I think that the weather patterns on cater has his own will often on held sure there's hurricane wind and climbing those conditions can be fatal I remember one Avalanche that came down started in the morning it sounded like somebody was blasting dynamite like 50 you know right outside the town and felt like the ground shook and so we all ran outside and we looked up this is Christ that was a little more substantial you have that whole piece that was hanging down there yeah God the truth is there's no safe way to get up through it made everything very very poignant and very clear of what you needed to be aware of and being very concise about where you went up if you were up there about their camp - you usually get blown off oricon triggered something yeah I could trigger something up the other side being that awesome power makes you think about other possibilities close to the foot of k2 lies a memorial to those who died climbing the mountain while acclimatizing to the higher altitude team members pay their respects it's all I have about an hour walk down from where our base camp was and the goki memorial is a place that started when art Gilkey died in 1953 after a heroic rescue carrying him down k2 he still died and so they built a memorial since then lots of other memorials have been placed at the site and it's a very very somber environment when you go and visit this memorial and just you're struck with how much how much loss has occurred in the quest to get to the top of this mountain you read all these plates about people have perished to died on the mountain you can read the I don't ascent died on descent died on descent died on descent people fall down hundreds of meters and their bodies are just scattered on k2 you don't find dead bodies find parts of bodies so I'm sitting there and I'm staring out up at k2 going this is where people are spending eternity looking out at their choice of climbing k2 it's a very grim reminder of what you're about to undertake I actually ended up sitting down and just allowing myself to cry I'm dumb Eric and Fred were there with me and I think that's where our bond really started to grow strong from the first point we've just arrived can three 7040 meters it's a beautiful day they're warm maybe two or Matt as we were pushing up to camp three you we were very aware of the atmosphere and how there was so much less oxygen took so much more work to take every step you quickly get short of breath and lightheaded you can't deny that there's a huge huge danger up there and just historically what that mountain has dealt over the years you know that it's gonna force you to dig down really deep it's gonna test you in every possible way in addition to Frederick Chris and the rest of the international team there are other expeditions on the mountain this year among them are the married Norwegian couple Rolf and Cecilia who tried to reach the top of k2 a couple of years ago but without success back at k2 this is Ralph and Cecilia's new chance to reach the summit together finally here fantastic a such a relief probably soon there when you go up your muscle tells you you need to breathe or yeah you have to stop exactly I don't weigh down so much easier and you don't breathe that's nice the same thing you know if you go up to a high camp have a bad night wake up with that kind of foggy headache you know it's because you just haven't been breathing the hatch [Music] after months on the mountain and during bad weather it feels like time is running out but good weather is expected in the coming days and a summit attempt is at hand for many of the climbers we got together collectively the various teams on the mountain to talk about how we might work together on the summit push this mostly had to do with dividing up fixed rope and fixing gear ice screws how we were gonna all distribute this and put up the route above camp four we take 400 meters we're still up then the Italians got 200 meters very strong very reliable for Traverse we had a good atmosphere all together so we were really really motivated to work together and and and just to finish this mountain coming back in the base camp and then have a really nice party we've got 400 meters lightweight very strong so when the Italians take 200 meters you don't have to bring anything okay we were all becoming a little bit anxious about the weather and whether we would have enough time to summit some of the groups actually had been on the mountain three or four weeks longer than we had they were getting pretty tapped out with their resources their patience so we all felt like this is our last best chance to get to the top then after we are working on like a one-piece we are working like a one team no surveyor no accordion no dot no America there is only one Sami team from of course as a human being you think that if you are with more people that it's more safe because you work together and you have less workload you know and it's you know more chances to get to the summit but actually you know it's just a matter of you know foolish yourself because the more people there are the more difficult or the more more dangerous climbing the mountain more people than ever I'm gonna be attempting the summit of k2 on a given day and that could be a problem and when so much money goes into an expedition to climb on a thousand meter peak sponsors are ultimately seeking publicity if there's tragedy involved that cat that captures headlines even more than if their success and you don't get famous for turning back on a big mountain you know headlines are made when you risk everything and lose everything or when you risk everything in meatless success the commercially-driven aspect of mountaineering I definitely played a role on k2 we arrived account for something like seven seven seven eight some of that tomorrow's gonna be a very tough day the bottleneck looks scary we arrived at camp 4 in the early afternoon the Sun was out the winds were calm the views over the Karakoram range were absolutely stunning I feel mr. chairman tomorrow push the table I feel good yes yeah position there was just this amazing feeling of anticipation and elation having reached camp four I think we all felt that we were so a fortunate to be in such an amazingly beautiful place it's such a incredible austere environment at that time to reach the summit you pass a narrow couloir overhung by sir axe called the bottleneck high-altitude falling ice and steepness make this stretch an extremely dangerous part of the expedition the bottleneck is located just over 1,000 feet below the summit on the morning of August 1st dozens of climbers start their push for the summit and they often unpredictable weather on k2 is for once on the same side as the expedition you couldn't have asked for a better day in a million years it was it was perfect there is no wind the Sun was out bright shining you know you would dream of having this summit day but because it was so perfect I think people stopped questioning themselves the group decision-making applied more so than ever before of people were making that well you know what it's a perfect day everybody's here it's perfectly safe what can go wrong despite the great weather everything's not right the first group of climbers left three hours late they spent valuable time looking for missing equipment now it's clear that if they reach the summit no teams will be able to climb down before dark we are on seven thousand nine hundred meters up on that and this is one of one more more disappointing days I had for a very long time total miscommunication when it comes to gear and who should bring it we should have Robichaud of gear and we are wave back in time we are really late I don't know what we're gonna do all these things added together made it fairly obvious for us that things can go wrong and we don't want to be part of this pretty disappointing coordination without was there there's not words to convey how crushed we were he puts so much effort into the climb up to that point you've got so much invested to be at a point where or you have to turn the switch off and go down is it such a difficult moment I have left a little bit before Eric and fried and so I had seen them turn around and I'm looking at this group of people who are just you know they're not moving fast it just doesn't feel like anybody's moving fast it's just not working the time doesn't look right and I'm looking up and I'm saying we're not gonna get back down through the bottleneck by dark and I don't think that's safe I think we needed to turn around I'm looking up I'm like it's just now looking right we're trying to figure out what just happened in the bottleneck here we're to a stage here where you know over 8,000 meters they're at the bottleneck and no it doesn't take for much to go wrong to be catastrophic okay y'all cheering this is Eric Templar do you know if there has been an accident over defeating the rock we got a radio call from the bottleneck that there was a person had been falling at the fixed ropes while trying to go around and pass another member it was serving climber trend he unclip from the rope and passed Cecelia from Norway at the bottleneck and somehow slipped there was just tumbling down longer than 200 meters dren Meldrick when he was falling he was just you know three meters away from me you know we were on the rope and everybody was just beneath me and some climbers ago of me and he was just let a left of the rope and I I don't know what he was doing but the the the time I heard a scream I was looking and I saw that he just you know he slipped and it was just tumbling over and and and it was yeah it was really stupid moment because he was so close that you were thinking hey give me a hand and and and and he was gone yeah we can we can see we can feel alone figure down in the rocks at the bottleneck he's moving he is moving over dren was still moving and he probably was still alive so Fred and I made the decision to climb up and see if we could help dren back down the camp for safely the decision to try and bring him back down to camp for us something that you have to deal with the consequences of that coming up to that spots I see ESO from Serbia s of dragging a person that is partially wrapped up and then I understand that okay it's too late drains body is wrapped in red plastic for other climbers gather around him ready to bring him down so I get up there and they urge to bring him down to base camp but I say that hey that that's impossible we can bring him down to camp four if everyone's in for it and give him a worthy barrel there instead of just leaving him on the hillside like this and that's what we start to organize to do so put this much faster we enlarge dose with that drop there no problem and we auto here okay the Serbians and Frederick start bringing the body down Frederick puts the camera in his pocket but forgets to turn it off and so we are on to France to here and to here and the bodies down here and we're lowering him down it's fairly steep here guys if you do fall you release okay it's it's it's it's our lives - okay remember okay I just feel a huge load on my back oh the Pakistani high-altitude porter is falling into my back and then he grabs the rope around my legs and I can feel his entire tension of his body on my legs plus the body from the servant dead climber and some of the servants now on the left side there is also loosing their tension on the rope which means that a lot of weight is put onto my legs and I'm screaming out and then he just loses the grip of the rope and start falling down so Jesus Christ he passed probably within 10 meters of me I think he was probably you know in some degree of shock emotional shock and also extremely exhausted and those things might have contributed to him not being able to stop himself to spite the horrific events taking place beneath the bottleneck wilco and most of the others decide to push for the summit we talked about it you know what should we do and then we said hey listen you know all the syrup climbers are going back so you know we can't you know do anything anymore you're a dead fire on the mountain you know that it's very hard to take decision to going back because you know this is k2 and you don't get a second chance and you know so we were thinking if we reach the summit you know just before darkness you know we have a headlamp and all the ropes are there you know we can make it I look up and we still see this lineup of people going up across the Traverse and it's almost 3 o'clock it's late I can't believe they're still going up at this time of day they're gonna be summoning at nightfall which they did at 7:00 p.m. Wilco and the other climbers finally reach the summit it was so nice to be there you know and with that weather you know and we were so satisfied we were dancing on the summit you know and and I was you know filming and asking Gerardo Jaya where are we we are in the seventh okay - so you know it was yeah and the light was so brilliant was I've never seen that in my life it was really unbelievable and then you know this curve of the earth and I don't know how to describe it but it was there was no sign at all that that it would go wrong on the way back you know so in our major nation it was just a matter of four or five hours six hours you know going down the morning after reaching the summit pembo who managed to climb down in the dark as chilling news the climbers in camp 4 prepare for the worst yeah when we but Oneg then I just reach the cooler top section then there is nothing no I think I know when Pemba reaches the bottleneck he discovers that ice fall from the serac had completely severed the rope the first ice fall has caused several climbers to tumble to their deaths including Norwegian climber Rolf bhaiyya [Music] the missing rope makes the climb down to camp for extremely difficult and dangerous a number of climbers are now stranded close to the summit we had to me you're losing a war friends is up there we lost them and there's nothing we can do now it's too late using their last bit of strength the climbers in camp 4 head down to base camp 11 people have already died on the mountain now Wilco and several others are stuck above camp 4 struggling to stay alive I got a little bit in panic because I started to get you know snow blindness so I couldn't see clearly anymore so I said listen guys I'm getting to get snow blind I have to go down immediately so that's what what I did and because the other guys they wants to you know to start you know looking for this rope and I hadn't I didn't have time anymore I just went down straight we get a phone call from Holland saying bull calls calling his wife when people call their wife's on a mountain after spending the night out that's not a good time you know that's a giving up sign that I just want to hear my wife's voice one last time when she was on the other side of the telephone lines he was actually very quiet because I was saying also quiet I listen I'm lost I don't know where I am but you know I survived this is the bottleneck and and I think you know I can reach camp 4 but they have to help me Dutch climber wilco van Ryan separated from the other climbers on the mountain prepares for a second night outside at 26,000 feet time is running out it was the worst night of my life I were in bad shape in a terrible situation and I knew that I was fighting against the wind because this little bit wind was you know that was making it so cold on August 3rd wilco is finally rescued several days after setting out to reach the summit Wilco and his team member cazza right at base camp severely frostbitten I have to figure out where we slept and I think we slept still his hands and we're looking at helicopter value evacuation sometime tomorrow morning and keep all their digits I remember Wilco asking about the fate of the others up on the mountain this was a moment where he was realizing just how poorly the experience had gone for many of the others that had summoned we had to tell him that eleven people were known to be dead well some of the Koreans got back from camp for today victims rooms already been eleven eleven people mr. Park Mr Wong to teach me knowing that mr. hyung well sure are [Applause] [Applause] after the rescues and after everything and relieving Basecamp I felt it was really important for me to go and say goodbye so I am the hike out on the day we were walking out I actually walked to the Gilkey Memorial and I was there by myself and there's a lot of uh new names [Music] I remember talking with Cecilia after all this happened and the summit attempts and rough - Ralph was killed and she told me that that day they arrived at Camp four together he said to her that this has to be the most beautiful moment of my life I think in a nutshell I think we all felt that it was a moment to be remembered for sure when I first went there were plaques that represented people now there are people and all that was left was plaques and that was the thing that I really had to come to grips with wilcos frostbite injuries require a large piece of his foot to be amputated Frederick Eric and Chris make it off k2 without any permanent physical injuries you

Channel: Nature & Adventure

Views: 1,416,350

Keywords: k2, k2 mountain, k2 documentary, k2 pakistan, k2 climbing, k2 adventure, mountaineering documentary, climbing k2, mountain climbing

Id: cihWMPNDRco

Length: 39min 58sec (2398 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018