[Music] I don't climb life seems empty I need climbing our part of my life I need a stimulus of excitement and the natural beauty of mountain pose the problem is again it's addictive and some people with the fatal of issues [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] the climbers of every nationality Casey has always been the mountain of mountains the ultimate in Milan challenge but has never had a British descent responding to the temperatures in 1978 and two other expeditions were also unsuccessful in 1986 Allen Ralph led the British full of cakes direct solution to cases take up a challenge my role on the expedition the climbing cameraman and it was to be the challenge of a lifetime for the events of 1986 to come down in the annals of mountaineering [Music] [Music] k2 the second-highest mountain in the world is situated on the borders of Pakistan and China and is some 800 miles to the west of Everest it's in the Karakoram range which is a vast range of mountain running north the true crux of the Himalayas all expeditions joint the k2 start from raw Hindi which is an uncompromising introduction to eat with few attractions for the turret several days are spent in the desert find the basic foodstuffs for the next two or three months in our case this involved some two and a half tons of gear and food for ourselves and our forces there were 11 of us all together eight lead climbers a doctor and a base camp manager the team was led by Allen rouse one of Britain's best-known younger Mountaineers and included some of the most experienced climbers around such as Brian hall John Porter the Burgess twins Dave Wilkinson John Barry and myself as climbing cameraman 1986 was a stranger crystal Pakistani authorities have given permission from nine separate expeditions to go on k2 at the same time the fact that we became gradually aware of the superstars from the mountaineering world began to assemble in Rolf nd amongst the well-known names arriving with the Austrian climber care Dean Burgett and Julie Tallis they would be on their third attempt on the mountain k2 is more than that hey it's also a certain certain times to go towards the sky the perfect way of saying I don't know like a very big crystal and it shatters fascinated me from the first moment and it rises up there speaking all the mountains around it - it's not in the shadowed by and that's large music history does have something that draws you back I don't know many people have tried it it's not for lack of trying [Music] from roll pendick off the expedition traveled up a great Karakoram highway the bulk of the expedition gear the two and a half tons is far too heavy to take on the internal flight some of us were lucky enough to get the plane one of the most spectacular and dangerous flights in the world as al Burgess explains flight skardu was really exciting Thank You Baba another mountain giant that had climbed on a few years before and it was all inspired to look down on the face was planned before and we were all crouched in the window looking toward the east hoping to get a glimpse of k2 and we're over in the distance we could see a slight pink and everybody knew instantly it was k2 playing back towards the east I started to come down toward the small green patch almost like a jewel second the dust of the Indus Valley and we came down to land in Skardu before you start the walk in proper there's the chaotic but necessary ritual of selecting some 200 Porter's to get us on 100 mile journey to base camp choosing them is a bit of a nightmare and you try and pick the people who've got the best shoes and have got a certain amount of personality about them because some of them can be very inexperienced and they're going to be travelling in fairly harsh and demanding territory they're fine until they get onto the belt or in glassier and the crucial part of the walking is always the last four or five days over the ice after k2 base camp the porters carry about 50 pounds of arghya plus some of their own and they're paid by Pakistani Sanders quite well it was after about five pounds a day this year we started at the end of April it was still early spring but I was surprised so he meets the Karakoram before find how low two rivers work sometimes it can be quite hard and very dangerous to cross for this year we were able to wait or fourth or even on precarious bridges across the rivers with no great difficulty though most of us was still very wary of the porter generally take it all in their stride [Music] Concordia is named after plus de la Concorde in Paris and at the point where three major Garcias meet it's surrounded by the great high peaks of the Karakoram the gush Abrams broad peak choke ELISA and as you look around at this fantastical almost legendary panorama your eyes inevitably drawn to the head of the Alpha baltoro Valley where this monstrous great triangular wedge of k2 still over 12 miles away just completely dominates the drive [Music] from concordia we were able to identify some of the features of k2 into the Mountaineer has become almost household names via Brittany ridged the shoulder house of chimney Chris Burlington who attempted k2 in 1978 described the mountains dramatic history it wasn't until 1938 the first really serious mountaineering expedition made an attempt their achievement in 1938 was remarkable not only in getting very high up on the mountain but also this was the first really good that a filming could ever be made the 1938 expedition was led by a young American medical student Charlie Houston Easter's party made its way laborious ly by Pony train from Srinagar in Kashmir to the remote mountain province of Pakistan Houston employed only seventy volte porters in addition to the six high-altitude Sherpas he was freely able to bring across pre partition India every expedition attempting to reach the heart of the Karakoram was first crossed the Brown Deer River in those days by precarious first Street bridges these bridges have only just been replaced I still have vivid memories than making terrified swinging progress over the raging torrents this film shot in 1938 is believed to be the earliest color film taken of a Himalayan expedition Houston made the decision to climb the Abruzzi Ridge is the most obvious and probably the most straightforward way up k2 at first the team made good progress and on July the 12th a month after leaving base camp help 3 was established at 23,000 feet though the route now became progressively more exposed the lead climbers made excellent progress Houston Bates now took over the lead and how so became the first major obstacle of the aberrancy Ridge 150 foot band of vertical rock this route has since become known as houses chimney the weather broken food supplies began to run out that pet Zoltan Houston reached 26,000 feet within striking distance of the summit savvy they were now forced by part whether to retreat though this first attempt on the Abruzzi remains a remarkable achievement the year after Charlie Houston made his attempt another expedition led by for its vice now an American of German extraction led an expedition to k2 bison and a Sherpa passing Goya established camp a to 25,000 feet on July the 14th 1939 with Dudley wolf in support at Camp seven they were in striking distance of a summit now something went radically wrong a young inexperienced climbers Durance assuming that bison would be returning triumphant in a couple of days systematically strip the mountain of all the gear in the lower camps including the spare sleeping bag this extraordinary decision left the mountain completely fair and this is where the tragedy was to begin they dropped down the following day to camp seven still expecting to find the Sherpas and other climbers and of course then they were appalled to find that there was nothing there the tent was everything to being left open it was full of snow it was no surprise no food the most important of all no sleeping bags they left their sleeping bags back at the camp above them at a bitterly cold night and then the next day they have to carry on down now suddenly wolf had actually brought his sleeping bag down with him he had asleep and so he decided it he just wait up there for them to come back and make yet another bid for the summit it was the Sherpas who tried to rescue deadly wolf and tragically in trying to rescue him three of the Sherpas lost their lives and they never got double wolf there was of course a gap caused by the second world war and it wasn't until 1953 that another expedition returned to k2 it was an American trip again led by Charlie Houston who led the original 1938 expedition they once again made an extremely good and detailed film of what was to be another really horrendous story and one which was to bear an uncanny resemblance to the events of 1986 by now dr. Charles Houston was the most experienced American Himalayan climber of his generation his team in 1953 was a performing credibly well after only 40 days on the mountain they were consolidating their position at Camp eight at 25,000 feet with ample food supplies but cruelly the weather broke and a series of savage storms pin them down in their top count on the sixth day tragedy struck Charlie Houston he called out about Henson stumbled around camp like castaways as art LT called out to China see collapsed during the night art had begun to cough a try hacking cough my cares were confirmed as I listened to his chest at least two areas of the lung showed that spots have been carried there it would probably not live through the descent but we did have to give him every chance because and we had to do it soon we must get him off the mountain it was the ninth of August we were the highest men in the world painfully Houston's men began the evacuation of their stricken comrade in the teeth of the continuing storm the shuttered climbers by now suffering from which left art Gilkey in the middle of a slope and Travis to cross to try and find some shelves to put a tent up for by now they were desperately in need of food and drink some time later they returned across the slope to retrieve art Gilkey Bob Bates ten mothers have to kill his last shouting Strehler Craig and I roped up and began to cross the slope to reach the injured man well we have some out of the ice sledge where we now had two small towns fortunately the wind that drops we reached the rock grim it looked in the beginning where our dead be less suspended what we saw there I shall never forget the whole slope was bare of life art Gilkey was gone at last in 1954 the mountain was climb this time it was a very strong Italian expedition they made really good fast progress and two Italian climbers company and luck Adelie actually made the summit bid they ran out of oxygen and there were just five hundred feet below the summit but they managed to struggle on to the top but in the struggle to get there and then getting back down they both got very severe frostbite and actually had to be carried out also tragically another Italian was killed Mario Puzo's a young guy for the next 15 years the whole Karakoram was closed because of political troubles but in 1975 the area was open and once more expeditions were allowed up the Baltoro glacier a huge expedition led by Lou Whitaker and costing $100,000 set off to attempt the North West Ridge of k2 [Music] the ridge was the route we were to attempt in 1986 early Americans chose an unnecessarily quiet approach give me some desperately difficult climbing but we with a bit of coming would managed to avoid the American camp to was eventually established at 20,000 400 feet just four yards inside the Chinese border Whitakers expedition seemed set for a successful attempt on the summit then k2 struck again the weather broke and Whittaker and his team were marooned in the tents by a series of savage storms which pin them down for 18 days many of the climbers felt that Whittaker his brother and his wife were interested only in reaching the summit and we're treating the other climbers as mayor beasts of burden one of them wrote in his personal diary if you were to be resorts to superior physical strength he should end up with an ice axe in back of his head the American Dream was falling apart or clear in the morning on July the 3rd the weather finally cleared conflicts and tensions forgotten Whitakers expedition returned their attention once more to k2 their goal to push the route out of up camp - in spite of the enforced delay if they could open up camp 3 the American super expedition would still have a chance [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] but eventually sickness and the evacuation of a seriously ill cause of wildin and the northwest where it remained unplanned the most expensive expedition to k2 had failed after Chris Burlington's successful expedition to the unclimbed Southwest face of Everest in 1975 it was inevitable that he'd turn his attentions to k2 in 1978 he mounted a small lightweight expedition to the unclimbed West Ridge within the nucleus of the 1975 expedition including Doug Scott and Nick a score oh whoa you nearly got us we decided on the southern approach to West Ridge and on the 5th of June Doug Scott tascam people naturally moved up to camp one stop pushing the route out towards what we hope to become to camp on was around about 19,000 feet above sea level I stayed just one more day down below to get everything sorted out before going up to join them and I must say at this stage everything seemed really good the whole team was now gelling together we were immensely optimistic and really glad to be getting our teeth into it but even so I think we all realized just how serious and how big a problem it was one of the problems was avalanche danger as Pete wolven explains the fear that we had on k2 was of snow untrodden snow you've no history about much is to learn from and so as soon as we start at the West Ridge were looking for the safest looking route while peak movement and Joan Tasker pushed the route out above camp two below in support Nick escort and Doug Scott buried loads just looking forward to getting to camp to 30p to go I don't you last rest yes being away prayer and there's suddenly there was a tremor went through the snow underneath me and almost straight after there was another one and by this time they generally were surging through my body and I realized that there's gonna be something nasty happening diamonds my eyesight Christine's of the snow is a kind of belay and I look back across the tracks and realize the whole of this nose was sliding off [Music] it's about who eleven o'clock in the morning at Spurs gym Duff and I were actually digging out a platform from another tent up and suddenly this huge palace now avalanche came pouring down over the icicles and I just had chosen the loop going across the snow slope about 1,500 feet above my thought it is absolutely safe and I tried to reassure Jim Tony I thought this was an avalanche that must have broken away quite a bit below in the mind of our heat when the whole slope just began - it was absolutely enormous it was so big I believe in the middle was just completely overwhelmed by it so much he moved down with the stove the slope seemed to be moving down with him and then he just disappeared suddenly I found myself catapulted right out from the Stannis i Sasha's ripped out the snow and I was cart wheeling and sliding uncontrollably down the slope towards Avalanche suddenly myself stop deafness now I've done right over leave summer stock with sixty five pounds on my bike I made like a giant anchor in the snow and without the ropes now I rubbed myself down up around the knee [Music] yelling your name nothing to do count to then Pete Joe came down the ropes was up there very cheerful yeah finally got the radio out and radio down Christmas on open call and explained what had happened and Doug his voice was breaking obviously in tears said that Nick had been caught in love k2 had claimed its first British victim and Chris Bonnington abandon the expedition Doug Pete and Joe returned in 1980 once more they failed and sadly Peter Gorman Joe Tasker were killed on Everest in 1982 [Music] the West Ridge was finally climbed in 1983 by a really huge Japanese expedition which left just two unclimbed ridges the southwest and the Northwest Ridge and it was the Great Northwest route that we were going on in 1986 on the 23rd of May 1986 the British pullers KP expedition set up base camp at the foot of the Savoy Ignacio traditionally all the British expeditions decay to who comes here and it's become known as the British base camp some half mile away the other expeditions gathered on the Bleak strip of glacial moraine that forms the main k2 base camp legendary names began to arrive from the rock a which the first European woman to climb Everest her polish friends Wojtek bras on his Villa k2 expedition and Oprah's lava bull nickname Rivka also on her third visit to the Karakoram a large Korean expedition arrived to attempt near Brit see using oxygen and fix roads their tents and ropes was approved critical later on veteran Kurt Dean Berger and Julie Thomas had also arrived to film and client as have Alfred Emmett sir who was the leader of a team of Austrian guides including Huns visa and Billy bar at our base camp our rouse was organizing his lead climbers it's two groups how Phil Burke ade Burgess and John Porter form the a-team - beatings John Barry our Burgess Dave Wilkinson and Brian hall these two teams would take turns to push them right out for our rouses years of planning and dreaming were about to become reality k2 is really the Mountaineers mountain I'd like to climb it far more than Everest it's probably the hardest mount in the world to climb by any route and the route which were trying is unclimbed a Northwest ridge icater took six ridges in total all of them have been found now the to the south west ridge north hostage remain unclimbed certainly if anyone on the expedition reaches the top which I believe they will do and certainly hope they will do it'll be very much a team effort on this occasion because there's a lot of picture opening a lot of work before we can get within striking distance of the summit our Burgess to be climbing the new route on k2 there's a certain sense of adventure and unknown they're moving up slopes but do you know that very few people have a climbed before he's always excited usually two people find first in the picture to say iago descent and then the GUP afterwards all health ferrying equipment of these ropes to establish a camp the wall below camp one was quite steep with all the fresh snow gathering on it reason while that avalanche raced but five minutes below camp one there's an area we called the Nutcracker which is a huge ice tower that formed a passage between the mountain and the big tower itself and every day it seemed as though the tower was moving and although it was on this short distance maybe two or three minutes of movement were all very conscious that if he did collapse you had no chance we didn't hang around in it above camp one steep 3,000 foot face of ice snow and rock proved to be harder and far more time-consuming than we had expected it took almost three weeks of effort often climbing in bad weather to get camp to established on the crest of the northwest bridge proper then more time was spent burying supplies up the face to enable our rouse and John Porter start preparing the critical upper half of the rigid cell the vast length of the climb and the frequent storms that often caused the climbers to return to base camp slowly took its toll on enthusiasm and fitness sometimes you find yourself trapped on the mountain by bad weather in a storm and you have to spend the night there and where the snow building up around the tent and avalanches rushing down around you you know you have to descend in the morning and it's a hard decision to make once you've left the tent and you're out there the picture up in the wind the adrenaline pumping through your body helps you know you have to get down and the further you get down better never think of the air less the wind blows the unpredictable arrival of bad weather made the slow progress other expeditions had similar problems and the Americans were the victims of the first tragedy of the summer [Music] one evening while we were at Camp 1 we heard the news over the radio they'd been a terrible avalanche on the South pillar of k2 and two of the Americans the leader John Smalley and Allen Pennington had been killed Curt and Julie were at base camp and saw the Avalanche sweet 3,000 feet down but John and Alan there was absolutely no chance of their survival Alan's body in fact was recovered later and buried at the Gilkey Memorial shocked by the disaster we returned to the mountain doubly aware of the need precaution one of the advantages of using picks rope is that it does in able you moving up and down the mountain to allow your body to adjust to the altitude to allow your physiology to adapt to the changing conditions and environment if you don't allow your body to acclimatize you suffer a severe risk hitting high altitude sickness and a cerebral or Pahlavi edema water on the brain that ultimately will kill you once again the deteriorating weather forced us to return to base camp only to discover that another epoch was being acted out near the summit of k2 a very small French expedition that included Maurice and million Berard and Michelle from Monterrey had climbed the aberrancy rich with them was wanderer kovitch who well-known polish climate she had made the first female ascent of k2 but below the summit they lingered far too long the per odds perhaps overcome with exhaustion and either fallen or collapsed we shall firm on tier was stranded above 26,000 feet and vonda was lost somewhere in the vast regions of here pretty rich as the storm blew in we worried for the safety of everyone on the mountain Thunder managed to fight her way back down to safety and Michelle who had risked his life in waiting for the return of the barrage and had a desperate epic after two days uncertainty they arrived almost simultaneously at base camp live under the satisfaction of being the first woman to climb k2 was tempered with the knowledge that Lillian and Maurice who had shared our tribe were both dead on July the 10th the polish expedition was plunged into gloom with more bad news having completed a new and very bold route on k2 jerzy kukuczka and Sedaris Petrovsky had met with disaster Petrovski had lost both his crampons and fallen to his death after almost two months on the mountain we had reached a high point of twenty four and a half thousand feet at this point is set with storms and finding that each attempt gained progressively less and less real height it was reluctantly decided that everyone was beating their head against a brick wall and then we suffered a double blow Brown Hall and John Porter had to go home John because of his job and brawn with a serious leg injury our burgers we decided to pack in the northwest rains because the team wasn't strong enough or large you know such a major objective but what we did see an illustrated the mountain on the ability spur with all kinds of people summit mk2 we decided the burgess twins our brows Dave Wilkinson John Perry and Phil Burke set off to make a quick Alpine star the center via grid see hoping to reach the summit in just three or four days a successful ascent would perhaps make up the disappointment of our protracted failure on the Northwest bridge bartha's Albertus explains it was not to be one o'clock in the afternoon cloud started to blow in from the west and it was obvious the weather was under change without - now climbing you have to make fast decisions if you're not climbing up you don't have the food to sit and wait you have to go down and that's exactly what we did four hours later our high point we were starting back drinking tea in Basecamp everyone on the mountain retreated but the lone Italian Renato Qasr Otto never arrived it's the morning of the 17th of July and there's been some really dreadful news we heard last night that Renato cutter Otto they'd had a crevasse Paul on his way down from the southwest Ridge and had radioed his wife Coretta asking for help we were woken up in the middle of the night and rushed up about two hours of public base camp onto the glass here where we found a rather sad group of people round as a Rotter he'd blown about 120 foot into a crevasse I'm Dean Berger amongst others has managed to pull him out but he's obviously sustained massive internal injuries and by the time we arrived because a Rotter after all these setbacks the rest of the team have decided to give it until the end of July to make one further attempt on the Oh Britt C but now our time was up everyone had work commitments and we'd been here for over two months only our Ralph's was prepared to stay on for one last attempt and I decided to stay and wait as well for owl the prospect of returning home without climbing k2 was unthinkable but he'd run out of partners so he teamed up with the Polish climber murica bull Ripken had decided not to go on the southwest Ridge with the rest of the Polish team fearing that the route was beyond her capabilities but she was well able to attempt the Abruzzi Ridge and so the two teamed up on my own at base camp I could relay radio messages to the teams now converging on the Abruzzi Ridge apart from the six poles on the south southwest bridge three Koreans have already started followed by the Austrians offered him a 10 pounds visa and Billy bar Kurt Dean Berger and Julie Tallis were also preparing for one final effort and so with alle murica there were now 16 climbers involved in what was to be the last attempt of the summer I need climbing now is part of my life and need that stimulus that excitement and the natural beauty of mountain every time I've been away an expedition successful occasional failure when I got back to England I feel completely rejuvenated batteries recharged ready for anything so great to just go in turn the tap on and have water instead of waiting for hours know all these little luxuries we take granted in normal life all become suddenly very real and life itself takes on new meaning until after you need another recharge and you have to go away again if I don't climb life seems empty I suppose the problem is in the end it's addictive and somebody puts a fatal thing she during the next interminable days I recorded the harrowing story in the form of a diary today's Friday the 1st of August and it is our most beautiful and stunningly clear day there's a slight breeze but the whole of k2 is in the sunshine the next two days will be absolutely critical I was intending to get the top tomorrow you can be a day late perhaps I supposed to be going incredibly well he could be a day early but ones above a house meters your lifespan dramatically shortened the accumulation of snow at the top of the Abruzzi hasn't become too deep and now can make steady progress the next couple of days might well see the first which is deceptive k2 you will today is Saturday the 2nd of August and should be the day that our and most we get to the summit quite funny I'm drip rigid sitting down here on their face come it's a perfect summit day if how is on schedule but the situation of Basecamp is incredibly tense the Koreans are trying an oxygen based attempt on the summit tomorrow I've got no news of Curtin Julie who are trying again on that second really major attempt so it really is a question of wait and see and hope and pray that everyone whatever nationality it would just be crazy for all that up this bloody mountain and then we could all go home a little gotek and I was like do you read me this is Jimenez come over no I can get no response but I've only just started any news from you over it's the evening of August the second and I've just made contact with Christina the Polish beating their cancer also his last bivouac and above them Wojtek is poised for the summit but the big news as far as I'm concerned is that I've heard the tower rouse and Maria could reach camp floor along with Kurt Dean Berger and Julie Tallis also account for three Austrians and the Korean team so with a bit of luck they should all top out tomorrow it's really tense at base camp at the moment and the next 24 hours place Sunday the 3rd of August as far as the others British caters expeditions concerned today is d-day I'll apparently spent the night comes next to the Korean tent at seven thousand nine hundred meters to climb today the tension is absolutely unbearable at ten o'clock the weather is certainly not good summit of k2 isn't disappears and it's much windier than it was yesterday top US 12 it's longer third and still no news but clouds from now beginning to well up all around big blobs of cloud of drifting past the window burst getting up at that and broad peak has got a child cup to the weather is definitely when the term turns lock I just made contact with Janish on that they're like and he says the weather up there very bad this also means of course the ability will be in very very bad weather so my worst fears are in fact then realized he's no news at all about all the Koreans or the Austrians but I'll go down and check that out Oh in case you haven't realized the korean expedition reach the summit of k2 so congratulations all around we look incredibly happy and please observe as well they might move the Koreans into the world stage of mountaineering oh thank you very much just been given a suite by the career there's and of the whole lot again thank you I was woken at seven o'clock by the Austrian captain the aides on officer who said he had some bad news the three Polish climbers who made the summit very late last night descended to count four and we think on the way to count for one of them died but yet another room that is now transpired that our Kurt and Julie have gone for the summit today and this again is worrying because clouds are now beginning to drift across the top of the Abruzzi and more much more worrying is high scum every cloud is coming up in the south where the bad weather always come from nearly ten o'clock skies now getting grayer and rare by the moment and apparently not only are the Austrians Julie wow it's such a going for the top but also three more Austrians who've already been at 8,000 meters before night if I can be believed it seems like everyone up there we've got summit fever in going through it despite the knowledge that the bards and everyone else who'd been near the summer to cater is spent to long-wear and met with disaster people just shouldn't spend so much time above 8,000 liters really you've got to go there get to the top next day and get back down not something I was petition understood very clearly or the same thing yet I'll now seem to be doing precisely the opposite you just don't get the truth on the resting at 8,000 meters thankfully the whole e3 team seemed to be on their way down now damages Dina Madonna the ones Geoff just left with a feeling of terrible blackness anticlimactic well it's nearly time for the radio call it's about 10 to 6 but the Koreans have just Tommy I think it's boy Tech who's been killed so the radio cool Oh Nelly Nelly confirm that the other news is that both people on the grand expedition who have just been killed by pulling stone the jun advanced base and count one and so it goes on summary time monday the full Allen baroque and now on the mountain on their sixth day Kurt and Julie are on the mountain for the Sabbath I honestly don't know where the three Austrians how long they've been there but what I do know is the three Austrians have spent four nights above 8,000 meters and my doubts and worries over the next couple of days the fate of the seven up there are just enormous it just doesn't seem to be anything else to say it's still on Tuesday the 5th August must be about our possible in the morning and I've woken up to at least three inches of snow at base camp visibility is about 50 yards and the thump of new snow avalanches is all around anyone I'm Katie now we'll be fighting desperately feeling lives well you must be like Aria Britt see there must be at least of course good enough I think we just have to start even now accepting the possibility that there may be a major tragedy I think if they don't come to us both come by tomorrow evening we must give them up as well [Music] now part of the I don't have a ledger in the night visibility's down to write down two jobs and I've been here still do some days I think for the sake of bringing onto hopes another to the three days but uh shoots it through but I'm now fairly convinced in my mind that I'll really catch vodka three Austrians were probably all dead [Music] that's the tenth of all this today huntress returned from a cold windy and very lonely night as a large space and reluctantly accepted done has been a dreadful disaster someone needs some indicator so now they've been gone for 12 days which is exactly double estimated time and I think really this all hope is gone Island move curtain Julie and three Austrians this brings the total of deaths on Kaituna to 15 and clearly isn't worth it more people have died than reach the summit it's sad you told tragic I just can't wait to get away from this place now it's Wednesday the 13th of August and since the last report a lots happened as dusk fell on the 11th there was a sudden commotion outside the both camp tents and we look out to see the sight of a figure stumbling and swaying as he approached base camp we all rushed out and met him and it was Billy bar the Austrian climber absolutely on his last legs dried blood around his face unable to speak we've got him back into the tents and finally the disjointed story emerged Carradine burger was somewhere behind him Julie Tallis was dead account for Al had been left there unable to move image there inviter had collapsed soon after they started coming down and Mercker as well was missing well Janish Christina room itself went up to the glass space got there about harpy 11th and I set off up onto the first long snow slope onto the Abruzzi and in the dark almost bumped into the curb descending painfully slowly and he turned to me and said I've lost Julie well we spent most of yesterday getting him down back to base camp I'm slowly the story of how they were trapped in the storm account for emerged he came round amazing he quickly was very lucid and he explained that he loved count for the day before in the teeth of the storm having started out for six days during which time Julie had died two of the Austrians won and gone completely off his head and the other was on the verge of death and by the time he left I was delirious obsessed with water and Kurt said that he didn't think old last night and he tried desperately to but it's well come down but now was sort of laughing in and out of dreams nightmares asleep and was incapable of doing anything but what didn't emerge until right at the end was the fact that the tower in fact had climb k2 he got the summit on the 4th of August followed a couple of hours later by Kurt and Julie so although the car homage and the toll is dreadful five more deaths on this awful summer 13 deaths in all Kyle did in fact achieve his ambition he did make the first British descent okay - followed as I say by Julie Telus that's really all there is to say [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
