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Brazilian Vitor Negrete lost on Everest after a no O2 summit
11:31 am CDT May 19, 2006
(MountEverest.net) Brazilian climber Vitor Negrete perished yesterday on the way down from the summit of Everest, according to Brazilian media. Vitor had achieved his pursued goal: To become the first Brazilian climber to summit Everest without supplementary O2. But he couldn’t make it down.
I’ll be careful
On May 17 Vitor reported from C3, as he was setting off for the summit. “I am going tonight, without O2, without a Sherpa and without a sat-phone, since the batteries of the one I have are almost gone. I am going completely on my own. I promise I’ll be careful.”
Summit and S.O.S.
According to media, Vitor somehow called for help on the way down from the summit, which he had reached by noon on May 18. His Sherpa, who had remained in C3, went immediately up to the rescue, finding Vitor still alive. The Sherpa helped him back down to C3, but Vitor died in the camp shortly after.
Doubts before the final bid
On May 16, Vitor received bad news at arrival in C2, on his summit bid: David Sharp, a British member of the expedition outfitted by Asian Trekking and including the Brazilians died on the mountain. Malaysian climber Ravi, also outfitted by Asian Trekking, was suffering from frostbite in two fingers. In addition, someone has emptied a cache left by the Brazilians in C2, containing gear and food.
Lucky enough, Vitor and the Sherpa climbing with him were helped out by other climbers, who let them a place in a tent and food enough for the night.
Summit bid seriously jeopardized
“All these events have affected me deeply – I even considered calling the attempt off,” said Vitor. “However, Ravi told me to reach the summit for him. Tomorrow I’ll go to C3. The plan is to reach the place by noon, rest for some hours and then set off for the summit by 9:00 pm. At C3 we have left another cache with food and gear – I hope we can find that one intact. Otherwise the summit bid will be seriously jeopardized.”
The thefts
This was only the latest in a number of thefts reported by strong, independent climbers on the mountain. Only last week, Simone Moro reported having his cache stolen on Everest south side.
Last year, young Polish climber Marcin Miotk found several of his camps emptied in his lone climb of the mountain late in the season. Like the Brazilians, the unguided climber ascended without supplementary oxygen and his life was jeopardized by the thefts.
Marcin summited and survived against the odds, but made a call at ExplorersWeb: "I got my summit and I will probably not visit Everest North Side again. But I care for other climbers' lives. So I wonder what we can do together - to change this?"
Vitor Negrete had previously reached the summit of Everest on June 2, 2005. Using supplementary oxygen at the time, Vitor returned this year hoping to summit without gas (a Brazilian first). Vitor had also summited Aconcagua five times, including the first Brazilian ascent via the South face, and the first Brazilian winter climb on the roof of America.
Vitor is the 7th casualty in the Everest area this year. Previously, British David Sharp perished on his summit bid, three Sherpas died in the Everest icefall, another Sherpa died of HAPE on the North side and a Czech climber fell to his death on the Lhotse wall.
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