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Annapurna newsflash: Iñaki Ochoa in trouble?
03:22 am CDT May 20, 2008
(MountEverest.net/Madrid) Iñaki Ocha de Olza is reportedly sick in a higher camp on Annapurna’s south side. Yesterday, he turned around 100 meters shy from the main summit due to frostbites on his hands. Back in a tent at 7400m, the Spaniard's condition suddenly worsened up.
Iñaki aborted his summit push up Annapurna's south face due to problems in his hands and lack of ropes to fix some difficult sections still ahead on the way to the top. Romanian Horia Colibasanu accompanied him down, while Russian Alexey Bolotov proceeded further up.
Iñaki and Horia back - Bolotov pushing on
Iñaki and Horia climbed down to 7400m, where they stopped for the night – they had been climbing for 16 hours non-stop. Iñaki called home, explaining they had endured severe cold during the climb, and that he had been forced to turn around after checking he had some frostbites on his left hand, and probably also on the other hand.
“We had run out of rope to fix, and there was still a delicate section on the way to the summit,” he said, according to Diario de Navarra Spanish newspaper. “I didn’t want to take risks with my hands in such a poor state. We turned around, but the Russian stayed up there, ready to try and reach the summit.”
Descent is mandatory
Iñaki seemed to be all right when he called home, but half an hour later he suffered a sudden stroke or sorts, including violent burst of vomit and cough, which left him almost unconscious.
Since then, Horia has been trying to find help and counsel from Doctors in Spain over the sat phone. He has apparently administered Iñaki some medicines, and will try to help his mate down the south face of Annapurna today. As Iñaki’s relatives told Diario de Navarra, Horia could have also asked for help to a Swiss team currently on the northern side of the mountain.
Is someone else there?
The climbers are running out of batteries on their sat-phones. At their latest report, well after sunset yesterday, Alexey had not showed up yet.
It is yet unclear whether there may be someone else on Annapurna’s south side. Swiss Ueli Steck and Simon reported from BC last week., after aborting an attempt up the wall due to high risk of avalanches. According to their latest update on May 16, Ueli and Simon were ready to remain in BC for some time, hoping conditions would improve enough to launch a second attempt.
Story edited at 7:00 am EDT - the Russian climber who joined Iñaki and Horia on the recent summit push is Alexey Bolotov, not S. Bogomolov as we previously wrote.
Inaki Ochoa has climbed 12 of the 14 8000ers, including a new route on Shisha Pangma. Although an advocate of freedom in climbing style; he dislikes artificial help. "If you use oxygen, you are not an alpinist, you are more of an astronaut or a scuba diver. I know it looks like I am repeating myself plus not making many friends, but that is the way I think. I am a very bad diplomat," he said.
Ochoa was born in Pamplona, Spain on May 29, 1967. He had his first experience on an 8000+ meter peak, Kangchenjunga, at age 22. He has since taken part in over 30 Himalayan expeditions and also worked as high altitude cameraman and guide.
On Annapurna, Iñaki is teaming up with regular mate Horia Colibasanu, from Romania. Canadian Don Bowie left the team some weeks ago; in exchange, Russian Alexey Bolotov had joined Iñaki and Horia for the current summit push up the south face.
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