The 1995 K2 Disaster: What Went Really WRONG ?

foreign there were seven climbing expedition to ketu in the summer of 1995. six on the Pakistan sites and one from China 11 climbers from poor different Expeditions submitted the mountain sadly air climbers died on the Mountain Six among them in a moist on storm on the 13th of August in this video I'll discuss the 1995 K2 disaster at length thank you the sex Expedition on the Pakistan side were New Zealand care to Expedition anglo-american Expedition Spanish Expedition Dutch cement of character Expedition American expedition and Catalan K2 Expedition the New Zealand character expedition was consisted on five members they were Peter Hillary New Zealand leader Bruce Grant New Zealand met commsky New Zealand Kim Logan New Zealand NG Plex Canada the anglo-american expedition was comprised of eight members they were Rob Slater U.S leader Alan Hanks UK Alison Hargreaves UK Richard CLC U.S Scott Johnston U.S Jake Roberts U.S uni U.S Michael Toba U.S and Expedition doctor the Spanish Expedition had seven members they were Jose Garces span leader Javier Oliva manual Onsen Javier is cartoon Lorenzo ortas Lorenzo Ortiz and Manuel avignanas Expedition doctor expedition was consisted on 11 members in addition there were two climbers in their expedition from Pakistan as well they were Rajiv Shah and meriban Shah the American expedition had seven members they were Larry Hall U.S leader made culverson J Short will John Culbertson Lyle Dean Ron Johnson and Alan McPherson Expedition doctor the Catalan Expedition had seven members under the leadership of horseship East 11 climbers from four different Expedition reached the summit of care to that summer season four from Dutch Expedition three from Spanish Expedition three from anglo-american Expedition and one from the New Zealand Expedition made it to the top of K2 these cemeteries were Rajiv Shah mehrabancha Hans Wonder Millions Lorenzo Ortiz Javier Oliver have your escort in Alan hangs Alison Hargraves Rob Slater and Bruce Grant foreign Hanks reached the summit on the 17th of July 1995. while the remaining six climbers made it to the top almost a month later on the 13th of August 1995. all reached a summit where the approaches were root no one succeeded to Summit from the north side where a German Expedition under the leadership of Peter kowalzique was on the mountain although the team had made good progress and got to 8400 meters and the summit snow field but beared with a haunted near Summit fish similarly the American and Catalan Expedition were also not able to submit either they reached as high as air thousand one hundred and eight thousand three hundred meters on the northwest space and the south south east but respectively broke out in the third week of July and at one point at snow for 11 consecutive days while the weather appear reasonable just down the glacier and Broad Peak storm condition fascisted above 7000 meters and K2 the American Catalan Dutch in anglo-american Expedition left the base game the New Zealand and Spanish Expeditions remain on the mountain for one final attempt Rob Slater from anglo-american Expedition fled to stay and make another attempt along with the New Zealand team at the last minute Elise and her grapes decided to stay in a climb with Slater in the kiwis as well by the secret week of August the base came was largely deserted only a handful of climbers stayed for one final attempt after a long spill a bad weather the Spanish Expedition launched the first attempt toward the end of July on the 1st of August they faced came three at seven thousand one hundred meters and assassin Road and continued to around 7400 meters but were forced back by bad weather on the 3rd of August after another prolonged period of bad weather all six climbers started from base game at 9 pm on the 9th of August for the final attempt and two groups during the eighth end eventually to be reunited it came three at seven thousand one hundred meters and the 11th of August not feeling strong enough for the final attempt Malone Anson descended to base game the New Zealand Expedition left for the assignment push on the 9th of August five members of their expedition Peter Henry Kim Logan Bruce Grant met commsky and Jeff legs together with Rob Slater and Alice in her grips from the anglo-american Expedition were climbing under approaches spur their expedition was moving up the mountain quite rapidly everyone was getting unwell apart from two big storms which had delayed the Essen for a couple of weeks the weather was looking pretty good they went to came to spend the night in win of the Black Pyramid token 3. had not been well so he stayed at chem 3. he had stomach upset and had been bringing up a lot of oil the rest of the team brewed off had something to eat and then climbed on through the night up to the game foresight it was the middle of the light a beautiful moon late night an intensely cold probably it was minus 40 degrees Celsius the snow was very heavy and deep just below the shoulder and they put a camp in there they had two tents and there were six people and only three sleeping bags so it was a pretty rugged night it got even more rugged the following night when made came off Peter Henry Jeff Lex and medcomski tried to sleep in those little tents with one sleeping bag over the top they all had to agree to lie and their tired sides and then turn over at the same time it was very tight and no one slept much 12 August don't clear it would have been a good Summit day but there were tired from their long climb the previous day about four or five o'clock next morning on the 12th of August they decided to head on off it was a lovely morning and they float of very heavy snow in God under the shoulder where they could see The Splendid sitting of their tents they all decided to spend a rest day and camp climbing through the night the five Spanish climbers surmounted the shoulders and setup came forward at 7950 meters at dawn on the 12th of August then at about 10 AM they received a visit from five climbers from the New Zealand team they had come up in order to afford a better view of the office loaves maybe that was fine with usual clouds touching the mountain here and there but looking settled just as in previous days in view of the favorable conditions they all arranged for a joint attempt to start the following day at midnight then at about 2 pm the New Zealand team descended to their lower Cam and the Spaniards managed to get some sleep soon after midday Cloud built up over the mountain and they started getting little snow flurries and Spain trip being blown around the weather had been like this for the first two days it would build up during the afternoon with snow showers and spin dripped whizzing around and it would get cold and dark then at 10 o'clock or so it would clear up and be a beautiful night it was one of the reason why the final Summit Group continued to go on at midnight on the 12th of August Lorenzo Ortiz Garden in Jose Garces left came four for the summit not feeling well enough for the attempt Lorenzo Autos had decided to remain at Camp 4 waiting for the return on of his companions about an hour later Peter Hilary japlex Kim Logan Bruce Grant Rob Slater and Alison Hargreaves left cam 4 and re-broke the trail up onto the shoulder foreign because he was still sick and not far from the game Kim Logan threw up his will and returned to Camp 4 at that point Pierre Henry and jplex eventually caught up with the Spaniards before the bottleneck at that point Pierre Henry was really getting cold and didn't like the look of what he saw on the Northern Horizon it worried him decided to go back and warm up down at the Spanish tents on the way down their first Bruce Grahn who was looking really heavy they gave him a piece of their fax line and said that they would warm up a bit and then follow him off they then came across Alice and her ribs and Rob Slater who were on the shoulder probe was looking really tired and was double over in cupping a bit Alice in her grapes were standing beside Rob the robe and her Grieves had never met before arriving at base game they seemed to hit it up immediately Peter and Jeff told her their plan and she said I'm going on and that was a listen really a very driven very ambitious climber at seven o'clock Pierre Hilary arrived at Lorenzo Ultra stands in order to warm up a little he borrowed the Spanish radio and spoke to Bruce Gran who had just got to the bottom of the bottle negali he could see him under little bit of frog with the Spanish climbers and they were moving quite slowly considering the conditions were very good he could also just make a Rob and at least in coming up very slowly below them proof said conditions were really great and they were feeling very good and were about to head on off the Gully in the meantime who cigars is supreme from cool feet had turn on back land before the bottleneck her griefs and ground and their way off in just a drone return onto camphor where Lorenzo suggested he entered hastened as the other one was occupied by Peter Henry and jplex sometime between 9 and 10 AM Jeff and Peter left and climbed to the bottom of the bottleneck Gully at about 8 200 meters considered to be something of a point of no return clicks and walls and exposed Isis rewards with huge ice Clips above and below the Veda had started coming in again in a thick boiling layer of cloud head backed up behind the curriculum range great towering fellows of cloud were washing over the top of cattle dripping from the north it was really cool it was snowing and they were in cloud and could only intermittently see the others at the top of the bottleneck as they started the Traverse Alison shouted down to Hillary kamanov use the red group Nevada looked very ominous to Peter Hillary he just sat there and looked at those tiny darts climbing aheads on the Traverse he was amazed to see Alison was scrolling down as Cloud dripped across the face he saw everyone crossing the rivers then they disappeared in the clouds Petro Hillary felt he should go down and he did at midday he was probably convinced that a major storm was sitting in indeed from a distance one would have seen that ketu had become raped in a ghost of clouds meanwhile a fuller man was gathering Force to the north he would come with fatal or go on and eventually he said he would try to go a little further Sofia gave him his radio and he headed off Peter had a very tough time going down he got lost even trying to get back under the shoulder and fill in agree voice he went right up to his knees and just managed to throw himself forward and scared it on his chest down the slope came down and when he didn't appear sent a message to him using the Spaniards radio it was all white out by then and getting down to game 3 was terrifying Peter couldn't see a thing he could just make out later lumps of snow in front of his booze and would kick them ahead of him knowing if they didn't drop away he could take another step at one stage he kicked the snow and it did disappear looking down these big robs knowing what was below and yet unable to see anything it was really terrifying he went down one steepish area and it broke away and started a small Avalanche much later jplex returned to Camp 4 and looked tired the Spaniards gave him something to drink before he proceeded down towards the apruzy ridge of the three Spaniards who together with Bruce grunt Alice in her Grieves and ropes later we're heading for the summit Lorenzo Ortiz was carrying affordable radio and several messages were exchanged between him base came and came forward and overcoming the bottleneck he said that all six climbers had made use of a Catalan group in the law of Art an older group in the middle section and a red dutch room in the upper area the Catalan and Dutch teams had visited this area earlier in the season an arrival at the site of the Triangular rock at 8400 meters they sent another message and this time Lorenzo OTAs confirmed to them the right time which was 11 45 AM around 5 or 6 PM Peter Hillary was descending beneath the Black Pyramid a more technical section of loose Cliffs and suddenly he found himself fighting for his life the storm had struck with Incredible ferocity a storm had also reached nearby Broad Creek Climbers on that mountain including Scott Fisher and Christine baskov were descending they looked in horror across the valley and could see Tiny figures and care to still going off they went through a theater of his speed and swung him on the roof against the ice wall at the top of the Black Pyramid snow and when thresh the mountain is he up sealed down the typical section he couldn't see anything he couldn't look off the spend rip was blasting down and him and he just hoped a rock didn't fall on his head the six climbers were nearing the summit around 6 pm Davida was still fine near the top and they had no inkling of the devastation heading their way at about 6 PM Lorenzo OT scored came forward and said that he and Bruce Grant had been the first to reach the summit soon after 6 30 PM another call was received and now it was Javier Oliver who said that he had arrived at the summit with Alice and Hargreaves and added that Javier escorting and ropes later were very near the top coming up slowly early it wasn't snowing and it's off in fact the conditions were reportedly splendid how your Oliver said it was extremely cool but meanless at the time and that all four at the summit were in view of the late hour about to start The Descent rather than wait for the last two the two they failed would surely reach the summit no more calls were received after this they could have descended easily in the light of the full moon that of course wasn't the case a murderous men reportedly blowing at 100 miles per hour kicked up within an hour the spanner stands on the shoulder were hit by a violent Stone It could only have been washed up higher we are Alice and her creeps Bruce Grant Rob Slater Javier Oliva Lorenzo Ortiz and Javier is cartoon all of whom had submitted were making their way down they can't have gone far down when a monster storm struck with no fax troops to attach themselves to and nowhere to take shelter they didn't understand a chance there were no Radio Calls somebody in base came glassing the mountains with binoculars reported what must have been a horrifying side the motorist storm literally blown them up the mountain picked up one by one and flung them down the South face at 7 30 PM Pirtle reached the tiny Ledges where there came two tents were passed and tied down with all climbing groups to prevent them from being blown up in storms he cooled down hoping came inmate would be there Kim shouted back and then told him that Bruce ground had reached a summit an hour before there was no Jubilation among them for they all knew they were out on a very long limb they knew that in these conditions their chances are getting down were very low and if they did get down they would have severe frostbite that night they slept with all their clothes on and with very pretty and all the gear laid out is the chances of the tents being shredded during the night was very high Peter Henry was exhausted as he had been climbing for 20 hours he crawled into his tent that was being lashed by the screaming winds and wriggled into her sleeping bags fully dressed it came forward on the shoulder the Spaniards were in worse conditions in the cavey's downward soon after the first ghost Garcia's strength started to skid in was just about to be blown away into Abyss Lorenzo or tossed from the outside tried desperately to stop it with his bare hands until Garces managed to jump out just in time the wind then just blowing it off with the tent all their gears were also gone he didn't join His companion in the remaining tent the bacon was a fish they cut open to let the Air Force through offering less resistance to the wind but later at about 11 pm in the night they hit to a bond and they stand and were forced to try to find Shelter From The Wind by lying against the bases of the blue and Away tents waiting for Dawn to come they spent the last night hours under the oven Sky it falls late on the 14th of August the wind had dropped and after warming up for a while in the Sun the two Spaniards by now suffering from plus buy to their hands and feet started their descent at about 8 am down their road on the south south east spur they had lost hope for their companions who had just met their fares higher on the mountain it came to under abroad despo the storm had forced in the cave spawned himself presented with a magnificent day blue skies a gentle Northerly Breeze in fabulous sweeps across western China and a karakoro mountains they were extremely pessimistic but continue hoping that there would be a clanking and the roofs above the came and Bruce would shout down to them put the Brew on you buggers but it was only a half there was only silence in the sunshine and the blue sky seemed a Scenic and finale to the horror of the previous night storm however they managed to contact with jetplex he got to kempor and a small Avalanche dumped under 10 crashing with him inside Jeff managed to regulate a two meters of snow and spent a night outside with just his boots and down suit on he had no crampons ice eggs or descending equipment figure of air or harness or any update gear he tried and went to the Gear out and was unable to locate the tent his companions doubt and came too kept pleading with him to start down and gather up some of the bamboo marker fools they had around the game to use as a self arrest device Chip's companions hope that when he got to Camp 3 where there was a sleeping bag and stove he would be able to get himself together again but he arrived became three to find the king had been crushed by an avalanche and most mountains such an even can only happen as a result of a bad decision to came in an avalanche path but in ketu there are no places to came Avalanche risk is everywhere one of the main reasons it is such a dangerous mountain Peter Henry Kim Logan and Matt Combs he didn't know what to do if they went up in their condition what was normally a five hour climb would take them eight hours moreover they were scarce step tired and knew there was a chance they could die the Black Pyramid was intimidating and together with the emotional overboard and up knowing they had lost Bros it was a horrible Prospect anyway Jeff started to come down he cut a piece of PEX lines and put it around his waist with a ball in and made a little rope sling then he tied this from the bowling around each row that was all he had and without crampons without HCL device exhausted and dehydrated Jeep came down the Black Pyramid it was a heroic effort Peter Henry and met clumsky climb up above the camp to meet him and he just threw himself at them he delivered himself physically and psychologically to them and they hugged him and got him down into the tent Jeff was totally exhausted surprisingly he had no frostbite they tried to rehydrate him but he couldn't drink much at about 4 pm on the 14th of August Lorenzo ortas and Hussein Garces had descended to around 7400 meters they spotted some clothing items will to the right of their line of descent authors deviated to have a look and found first an empty boot which due to the unique heating device that was attached to it he instantly recognized as belonging to Alice and Hargreaves two days before it came four Alison had shown this contrivance which was connected to a small Bear tree that she was getting inside her clothes some 3 meters below the wood there was an anoric and inside it a black harness that hit a diamond Ascender attached to it the Innova was a dark violet color with a motive of small flowers which he also recognized is belonging to Alison both the unoric and especially the Hornets were heavily stained with blood looking up the Gully strewn with rocks at the fine where these items were lying he could distinguish three distinctive tricks running Wilson fretted and parallel to each other and coming down from a long way above along the three tracks the snow was bloodstained and he concluded their three bodies must have fallen from above pumping amongst the high rocks and sliding down the Gully touching by the upper direction of the tracks he estimated that the bodies must have fallen from The Summit Ridge at a height of around 8500 meters a long way before the Traverse it leads down to the bottleneck potas then picked up the harness with the idea of sending it to Alison's husband he later experienced some difficulties during The Descent and had to abandon it he proceeded down the left edge of the goalie and after descending a certain stretch discovered from a distance a body that was lying in a hallowed rather flared large area at the edge of a line of cerix that are a very prominent feature of the South face the body was about level with game 3 at 7100 meters person 300 yard distance and due to intervening terrain not visible from it he gains that the body had to be a license and this impression was confirmed by the fact that it had read clothing over the entire body which he remember she had been wearing under the anoric he saw no faces of recent Avalanche in case that Alison and the other two bodies must have been blown up the Upper Ridge by the strong winds that had been blowing from the north the day before he looked hard trying to discover more bodies in that area as he had his compatriates in mind but nothing at all could be seen and he accepted the possibility that the two missing bodies might have bounced over the line of cerricks down the South pace and out of sight once United with Garces he told him of his mindings and they decided to continue their descent came three from here they would try to reach Alison's body in very edge cam 3 was not really pep since all the gear in full agents had been carried to came poor by the climbers and their way off and all this had been lost with the Wind and arriving at chem free they realized that they had desperately needed to reach Camp 2 at 6600 meters which they knew was well supplied it was getting late and they abandoned the idea of bearing the body and continued down at about 10 pm there is the safety of chem2 where they spend the night getting plenty of rings and a little food and the uproots is for perro Hillary went back to his tent made komsky stared awake with jaiplex for a long time mare had been asleep for an hour or two when he woke and lean across to check Jeep put his hand and his throat and couldn't feel anything came and made tried to resistate him but it didn't work Jeb had died from sheer exhaustion during the night he had climbed above the bottleneck and managed to escape the storm in horroring 30 hour descend into the teeth of the vicious storm he succeeded in making it back to game 2 but couldn't survive the night Peter came and made cut a little grape on the South Base at around 6600 meters and buried Egypt into it they said a few words shared a few tears and then started their descent to lower camp on the 15th of August they arrived at Advance base game pretty late in the day they read your base came up their arrival and the south south east poor being in radio contact with base game Lorenzo ortas and Jose Garces resumed their resent at about 7 am on the 15th of August and soon Garces who was the fitter of the two went ahead while Manuel Anson was coming off from base came to help or trust down eventually gases reached base camp at about 6 pm and the other two some three hours later there they learn of the Fates suffered by XXX and the details of the New Zealand teams Retreat down the Abruzzi Ridge on the 16th of August the new zealanders went to the Cape of the American broad Peak Expedition and with the leader of that expedition Scott Fisher skin the face of K2 with the health of a telescope in the hope of finding signs of the missing climbers people searched the mountain from the base game of New Zealand Expedition with telescope as well but by then two nights head first and there was no chance really the news was then released by Peter Henry to the outside world Jose Garces Lorenzo ortas along with your doctor Manuel avigan asked for airlift to score through under 19s of August back home in Spain they were examined in the hospital in underwent minor imputation to their fingers and toes after sending the emergency messages over to family the New Zealand team then figured up and left the base game earlier in the season Yuri English a member of the Catalan Expedition and 1000 meters down the snow's law from where the fax groups end to almost the Bears he had not had any Rock but the roughness of the snow or the same speed he had acquired in the fall had broken his neck and he died a few days later his body was evacuated from the base game in a helicopter my mother died and came to that summer in 1995. Yuri English Lorenzo Ortiz Javier Oliva how your escort in Bruce Grant Alice and her Graves and Rob Slater never made it big the latest sex died in a vicious storm on the descent from The Summit as with any Expedition ending and disaster the second guessing begin immediately had the storm really taken the climbers by surprise or were they blinded to the telltale signs of approaching bad weather by the intoxicating perspect of getting to the top chemistry had developed among the climbers who headed for the summit on the 13th of August they ignore signs of dangerous weather ahead they headed for the summit as light was spreading and bed weather was closing in Peter Hillary believed that Summit fever had developed in that group there was a chemistry and there that mean they were going for the summit no matter what they were all driving each other on there was no careful awareness in the group in the most dangerous thing about group is that everyone hands over responsibility for themselves to someone else it means that no one is taking responsibility there can be a false sense of strength in numbers but it doesn't matter how big your group is you can have 1000 people in the mountain could still kill them all they are all obsessed by The Summit and fed no attention to a massive storm system that was building up in the north despite increasingly ominous weather they continued and reached the summit shortly after 6 pm that means they would have to return in darkness something most climbers would never contemplate doing Alice and her griefs was a brilliant climber but she had tremendous commercial Treasures on her and she became obsessed props later was determined but very inexperienced he had yet to climb a 7000 meter peak but he felt ready for care too he worked for some two years to train for and organize the expedition he was a big wall climber probe was looking forward to settling down after climbing K2 then there was one of the Spaniards who was young but very strong they all broke each other on and others followed in a way it all started snowballing in and itself it was so clear that black nasty looking Bank of cloud to the north was coming in and Prudence said withdrawal Pietro Hillary did and he hoped they would do the same but they didn't the most important thing Mountaineers can do is to listen they must listen to the mountain the weather and their bodies mountaineering requires more than just strength in style Mountaineers have to pay close attention to many factors in a dangerous environment when these determinants are ignored tragedy of an ncu's thank you all so much for watching foreign [Music]

Channel: Epic Adventure Archives

Views: 24,292

Keywords: the 1995 K2 disaster, mountaineering disasters on K2, K2, K2 mountain, deaths on K2, Alison Hargreaves, mountaineering gone wrong, climbing gone wrong, disaster stories, mountain climbing disasters, the 1996 Everest disaster, the 2008 K2 disaster, climbing K2, K2 documentary, K2 summitt, the savage mountain, the 1986 K2 disaster, K2 climbing video, K2 mountain death, K2 bottleneck, K2 mountain drone view, K2 mountain to video, K2 base camp trek

Id: iEEjXBGAmA0

Length: 39min 1sec (2341 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023