|
|
Annapurna latest: Ueli Steck reaches Iñaki in C4, Denis Urubko and Don Bowie enroute, third rescue team organized
11:57 am CDT May 22, 2008
(MountEverest.net) Stranded and seriously ill in Annapurna’s C4, Iñaki Ochoa’s situation is critical. He can eat and drink but not walk or speak.
Over the years in the Himalaya, the Spanish climber has made the best possible of friends. Now they are rushing to his aid, scrapping their climbing plans and home-bound airplane tickets; ready to risk their lives on the mighty south face for their mate.
Three rescue teams
Behind the scenes, a tremendous rescue effort has been taking place. The names of people involved have now been made official by media and climbers, so here goes a full update:
As most of you guessed, the Swiss rescuers are Ueli Steck and his climbing mate Simon. Ueli has now reached Iñaki in camp 4, after two days climbing in bad weather.
Literally running up next is Denis Urubko, sleepless since he found out about Ochoa while in Kathmandu. Russian Serguey Bogomolov should be in a hospital, nursing frostbites he suffered on the wall two weeks ago. Instead, he's leading rescue team number 2, of Denis and Don Bowie who has volunteered to help as well, in spite of leaving the team earlier due to differences between the climbers.
Already in Pokhara is a third back-up rescue team, including Romanians Alex Gavan, still recovering from the summit of Makalu and his mate Mihnea Radulescu, as well as Robert Szymczak, the medical doctor in Artur Hajzer’s Polish expedition, just back from Dhaulagiri. Maxut Zhumayev, fresh from Manaslu, his 12th 8000er, also offered his help and might be picked up enroute back from his summit of Manaslu.
Artur Hajzer has provided route details and Javier G. Corripio is providing special weather reports. Climbers' friends and home teams, mountaineering websites such as RussianClimb and ExWeb, team sponsors and Inaki's family have all been working around the clock from all corners of the world over the different time zones to save the men on the south face of Annapurna - in one of the most difficult rescue operations ever in the Himalayas.
Recap
Spanish Iñaki Ochoa and his regular climbing mate Romanian Horia Colibasanu reached C2 last Friday, in a summit push on the highly difficult south face of Annapurna. Russian Alexey Bolotov, whose team mates had just aborted their own bid joined Inaki and Horia, replacing Canadian Don Bowie.
By Sunday, Iñaki, Horia and Alexey were in C5 (7.830 meters), preparing for the final push up to the ridge and then on to the main summit. The three were feeling fine and upbeat, according to Iñaki’s webmaster Jorge Nagore.
On Monday, Iñaki decided to turn around barely 100 meters below the summit. He and Horia returned to C4 at 7,400 meters. “We had run out of rope to fix, and there was still a delicate section on the way to the summit,” Inaki reported over sat phone. “I didn’t want to take risks with my hands in such a poor state. We turned around, but the Russian stayed up there, to try and reach the summit.”
Half an hour later, Iñaki suffered a stroke of sorts. He started to cough, then vomit, and finally fell semi-unconscious. Horia desperately wrapped his mate in all clothes available, and called over a dying sat-phone first to Inaki’s team; then to a Doctor in Romania for counseling. He administered high altitude drugs, and made an emergency call over the radio to the only other remaining team in BC: Swiss top climber Ueli Steck, who planned to open a new, alpine-style route on Anna together with mate Simon.
Luckily, both teams had set up a common radio frequency before Iñaki and Horia departed on their summit push. The stranded climbers had no proper medical kit and no batteries left for their sat-phones. Meanwhile, there was no news on Alexey’s whereabouts.
Meanwhile, below
Early morning Tuesday, Ueli and Simon set off from BC in unstable weather conditions, up the ropes fixed by Iñaki and Horia, across the glacier and up the wall to C1.
By then it was already clear that Ueli and Simon may not be enough to get Iñaki down. A back up rescue team became mandatory.
Iñaki’s BC crew, friends and family in Spain, Horia’s home team member Andrei Simu in Romania, RussianClimb’s Elena Laletina in Russia, ExWeb and many others started to organize chopper lifts, infrastructure details and calls to climbers in the area and Kathmandu.
Asian trekking’s Ang Tshering Sherpa contacted the agency arranging logistics for Iñaki’s, to help with helicopters and internal flights. Javier Corripio made costumed weather forecasts for Annapurna’s south face. Artur Hajzer studied Iñaki’s route and provided details. Climbers mailed in with offers to help.
Climbers joining
Serguey Bogomolov was the first to know and to react: Already in KTM, he offered to find other climbers and get them in a chopper on the following morning.
Don Bowie, resting in Phokara, asked to be picked up on the way. As Bogomolov´s Russian mates were already gone, emails and a call for volunteers by ExplorersWeb proved fruitful. Waldemar Niclevicz, Alex Gavan and Mihnea Radulescu volunteered from Kathmandu. Then Maxut Zhumayev heard the news on the way back from Manaslu, and asked to join as well. From the Polish Dhaula team, climbing Doctor Robert volunteered.
Meanwhile Mingma Sherpa, in charge of logistics for the Spanish rescue team, ran the streets of Kathmandu at night, looking for volunteers. At five in the morning, he knocked on the door of the hotel room where Denis Urubko was sleeping, just back from Makalu.
Mingma offered Denis whatever he asked to get involved in the rescue. But all the Kazakh needed to hear was Inaki's name. Accepting no money, he just packed and left for the airport.
The latest
The chopper with Denis and Serguey took off from KTM on Wednesday morning, the two bringing a complete medical kit and bottled O2. They stopped in Pokhara to pick Don up, but then unfortunately clouds set in and the helicopter was forced to land in Chomrong, 7 hours walking distance from BC.
Meanwhile, Ueli and Simon managed to reach C3, in a race against time. They were just one camp away from Iñaki and Horia.
Today, Denis and Don loaded their packs and headed to BC on foot. By this evening, they had set off towards C1. Serguey remains in Chomrong, waiting for a third back-up team coming from Kathmandu, carrying Alex, Minhea, Dr. Robert, five strong Sherpas and hopefully Maxut.
Midday, Ueli finally reached C4. Simon has turned around, and waits in C3. Steck found Horia extremely tired and weakened after all the days at high altitude.
Ueli sent him down to Simon in C3, and took the nurse shift for Inaki, administering medicals and fluid. Iñaki's condition has since slightly improved. Alexey managed to reach lower camps on his own, and is either in camp 3 or camp 2.
Horia, Simon and Alexey are expected to reach BC tomorrow. Meanwhile, Don and Denis will climb as high as possible. The third team will arrive in BC for the most difficult part of the rescue to begin: the men will have to find a way to bring Iñaki down.
Latest Annapurna weather forecast by Javier:
The general model indicates a cloudy day tomorrow (today Thusrday), especially at lower elevations, with precipitation in the afternoon. It is wetter to the south and dryer to the north, unfortunately Annapurna is the first barrier from the south. The sounding profile gives a confuse signal, so reliability is not very high. There is still a lot of humid air masses in the region which favours cloud formation.
The high resolution model (unvalidated) indicates that there may be a clear gap early in the morning above 7000m, deteriorating after 10h local time with snowfall in the afternoon. Winds remain low (below 20 km/h).
Good News is that the 23rd and 24th seem to be much dryer and stable. Winds remain low on these days and there is a good chance of clear skies. Convective activity is unlikely. It seems to be clearing higher up first and progressively at all levels.
About Inaki
Inaki Ochoa has climbed 12 of the 14 8000ers, including a new route on Shisha Pangma. He 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 was teaming up with regular mate Horia Colibasanu, from Romania. Canadian Don Bowie left the team some weeks ago; instead, Russian Alexey Bolotov joined Iñaki and Horia for a definite summit push up the south face.
Links to teams on Annapurna:
Inaki Ochoa
Horia Colibasanu
Don Bowie
Piotr Pustelnik's dispatches
Peter Hamor's website
Piotr Morawski's website
Bogomolov updates on RussianClimb
Ueli Steck
Annapurna 4 ski expedition
Alex Gavan's website
Annapurna weather forecasts:
meteoexploration.com/
|
|
Top Feature Stories |
|
Latest News |
more news |
|
StatCrunch, take 2: 8000er national ranking
Full Story
|
|
Halloween special: haunted Everest and spooky footprints
Full Story
|
|
StatCrunch: 8000er mountaineers with 6 summits or more, updated
Full Story
|
|
Tom Holzel's latest on Mallory & Irvine: The final time line
Full Story
|
|
Renaissance explorers: ExWeb interview with Simone Moro about Cho Oyu SW face new route attempt
Full Story
|
|
ExWeb interview with Oh Eun-sun: "Annapurna will decide"
Full Story
|
|
Book Review: David Falt on Steve House's "Beyond the Mountain"
Full Story
|
|
ExWeb Interview with Nives Meroi: “Romano comes first, whatever happens”
Full Story
|
|
|
|
ExWeb interview with Ryan Waters and Cecilie Skog, “The mental part was the most difficult part” Jan 22, 2010
|
|
Slam-dunk: Cecilie and Ryan bag polar history Jan 21, 2010
|
|
Antarctic wrap-up: Cecilie Skog and Ryan Waters did it! The first unassisted and unsupported expedition across Antarctica! Jan 21, 2010
|
|
Game over on Kwangde; climbing push on Tawoche Jan 21, 2010
|
|
Antarctic wrap-up: Cecilie and Ryan through the big drop, ice falls and crevasses; seeing the finish at the Ross Sea Jan 20, 2010
|
|
1960-2010: Dhaulagiri 50 years anniversary special Jan 20, 2010
|
|
9 out of 10 climbers use Thuraya in Himalaya: check out the price cut at HumanEdgeTech! Jan 20, 2010
|
|
Himalaya shakedown, continued: what’s the worth of a summit certificate? Jan 19, 2010
|
|
Himalaya shakedown, continued: what’s the worth of a summit certificate? Jan 19, 2010
|
|
Antarctic wrap-up: Meagan McGrath at the South Pole Jan 18, 2010
|
|
Winter Kwangde Lho update: The Russian B-plan Jan 18, 2010
|
|
ExplorersWeb Week in Review Jan 15, 2010 Jan 15, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
