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Juanito Oiarzabal and Edurne Pasaban K2 debrief: Beyond the limits - Final

Sep 7, 2004 07: 34 EST
Juanito Oiarzabal and Edurne Pasaban are back home, recovering from the severe frostbite they suffered during their summit bid on the Abruzzi Spur route on K2. They succeeded, but the price was high. Here is the final part of their debrief.

It's a long, frank interview made by the Basque paper ‘El Correo Digital.’ The interview took place when Juanito and Edurne were still in a hospital bed in Islamabad. When the memories, and the pain, were as fresh as their wounds.

This is how both Juan Oiarzabal (48) and Edurne Pasaban (30) tell their story of a climb beyond limits. But beware, Juanito is quite ‘expressive’ and doesn't really mind his language so, please, no offense.

In part two, published yesterday, Juanito described how the final steps towards the summit were sheer torture. He had problems with his heart and was losing his sight. "We shot some film, but what I really wanted to do was to run the hell out of there. And when I decided to start climbing down… I dropped to the ground like this (spreading his arms wide)... And I started to drown."

E.P:I looked at him and his eyes were... so red!

J.O: And I tell Juan, “Hey, I think I am not getting out of here, eh? I am fucking bad and I am going to fucking have a tough time to get out.” I recall clearly saying exactly that. But I managed to stand back up on my feet again and Silvio roped us and helped us back down to the saddle. There, at 8500m, the night fell. So I grabbed Juan again, who was there waiting for us and told him: “Juan, I am fucked up”. And I roped myself to him. I had no head torch, giving it to Hassan earlier when he turned around.

You were the last four down, weren’t you?

J.O: Yep. Silvio first belayed Edurne and Juan - he behaved like a real gentleman. Then he belayed me and helped me down.

EP: Silvio took me down to the fixed ropes and then said: “Edurne, I am leaving you here and I am running back down because my feet are really cold”. So I climbed back down to the Traverse.

J.O: I did the whole climb down in darkness. Thank God there was a moon.

E.P: They picked me up in the Traverse. I was frozen, unable to move. Now we were three people climbing the traverse on only one headlamp.

JO: To be accurate, we were three climbers, two of us almost useless and the third helping us down. We climbed down the Bottleneck and, from that point it was like saying “Last one is a pussy!”

EP: We kept on climbing down and, suddenly, I asked Juan: “Hey, where is he?” (referring to Juanito) and Juan answers: "Surely he found himself safe, and has run down”.

J.O: But what are you saying? I didn't even have a headlamp!

E.P: We were almost together, with him slightly lower. Then we began seeing people climbing up towards us. We thought they were coming to meet us but, no, they were going for the summit. A sherpa gave us a headlamp and a thermo with warm drink, sent to us by Silvio. I put the lamp on Juanito’s forehead and walked hand in hand with Juan back to the tents.

Then you got lost, Juanito

JO: I was distracted by the people on their way to the summit and lost sight of my climbing mates. Before that I had started to go blind (I wouldn’t recover my sight until the next day).

But you were conscious...

J.O: Of course! The problem was that all I could see were black spots. And then suddenly I stopped and said: “Where am I?”

What did you do?

J.O: Ha! I prayed. I had met Tente (Spanish climber Vicente Lagunilla) on his way up and he had warned me to keep walking in a straight line, and told me that C4 was just 15 minutes away. When I realized I couldn’t find the tents I decided: “No way I'm moving from here!”. I started yelling, but not a single soul showed up. With every new star that appeared in the sky, I shouted and yelled like a madman. Now I can laugh about it, but back then all I could think was how many hours were left until dawn. Thoughts raced through my head: “I've never been in a situation like this before - what can I figure out, what can I do to save myself?!!”

EP: We thought he was coming down behind us. But as time passed and he didn’t show, Ferrán decided to call a rescue to go and search for him.

J.O: Then I saw the lights, the signals. And I replied. And I repeated the signals...

Were you conscious through all this time?

J.O: Sure! Among other things, I focused to not fall asleep. I would get up on my feet from my sitting position every two minutes - my ass was freezing! I assumed that no one was coming for me. But then Ferrán came. And, by the way, he scared me to death! He came from behind in silence and I thought it was the Yeti! It was one of the best moments of my life, OK? Along with the birth of my son. What I want to say, and say it clearly, is that there was not one of us climbing K2, BUT FIVE. Ferrán Latorre's behavior in Camp 4 was exquisite. He was already on his way to the summit, but he sacrifided his bid for us. He deserves the summit more than anyone. I want to make this tribute to him.

Now, three days later, do you honestly think that you went beyond the limits?

J.O: Yes.

Did you mean to?

J.O: We did it consciously.

EP: Well, I never had the feeling that I was passing any limit!

J.O:Oh, come on, Edurne!! We crossed every limit and every rule an alpinist is supposed to maintain! True that we are experienced, and had figured out our schedules and plans, but we didn’t do it well. Most of all, me; I’ve always criticized those who don’t stick to a deadline on their summit bid. It's my fault to a great part, I should have known better, having in mind that I was the most experienced. We didn’t act well. We took more risks than is acceptable.

Juan Oiarzabal was born in Alava (Basque Country) 48 years ago. In 2000, his Annapurna climb made him the sixth climber who bagged the 14 eighthousanders on Earth. Two years later he climbed Everest without O2. In later years, he has kept on climbing 8000+ peaks, either as a mountain guide or as a stunt in Spanish TV documentaries. This has made him break the world record of summiting 21 8000+ peaks. His recent summit on K2 almost took his life, and he suffered severe frostbite. He’ll be losing at least eight of his toes.

Edurne Pasabán (30) was born in Tolosa (Basque Country, Spain). Her K2 summit made her the only living female K2 summiteer today. She has bagged many more 8000+ peaks: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, GI, GII and K2, all of them in an amazing short period of time.

Both Juan and Edurne were part of a huge expedition launched by ‘Al Filo de lo Imposible’, a Spanish TV documentary series. The goal of the expedition was to put a woman (Edurne was chosen) on the summit of K2. Therefore, a strong team of climbers was hired to support her and film the ascent: Juan Oiarzabal, Juan Vallejo, Mikel Zabalza and Ferrán Latorre. They summited on July26th through the Abruzzi Spur route, along with Silvio Mondinelli and four other climbers from the national Italian team ’50 Years after’.

The Interview and the images were made by El Correo Digital correspondent on K2 Fernando J. Pérez. Images courtesy of El Correo Digital. Top picture: Mikel Zabalza on the Summit; second picture: Juanito Oiarzabal is helped down to BC tents; third picture: Edurne Pasabán at her arrival back in BC

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