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Juanito Oiarzabal and Edurne Pasaban K2 debrief: Beyond the limits - part 2
Sep 6, 2004 08: 44 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 part 2(3) of their debrief:
For this climb debrief, we have picked a long, brutal 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.
J.O: So this is the second time I radio back to BC.
E.P: Yeah, that’s because we all started comments like: “Hey, this is the place where that guy was killed last year,” And Silvio adding: “It was here where the Ukrainians turned around...”
J. O: I told them, yeah - everybody has fucking turned around here, so what. Someone must have the balls to go on. And who did? The other expert: Juan Vallejo.
E.P: That was the only time I saw Silvio in doubt. Juan was in the traverse and Silvio looked other way. If Silvio is not looking, it is because he is thinking; “Ohmygod, he’s going, he’s going away”. Silvio didn’t look through the entire Traverse.
J.O: But Juan managed to complete the traverse with the snow up to here (he points to his belly with his hand). It took him long, but he reached the Stone at 8.400. Then we followed. From that point, it was torture. When I reached 8.400, I radioed again.
You were delayed by then
J. O: We were climbing 150 m pitches on only one safety screw; there was no way to put anything else. Each of the pitches took about one hour and a half. There was so much snow that we actually had to swim in it. There was nothing but tricks on that fucking peak. So with that, of course, time passed… Then an Italian showed he had guts and opened the trail up to the summit ridge and, from there, to the final saddle.
Did you never think to turn back, considering it was getting so late?
J.O: How? With her in the group (pointing to Edurne)? She refused (to turn around) on the Bottleneck… No way she would accept to surrender up there.
E.P: Besides, when we reached that point I looked at Juanito, climbing behind me, and he said:”Now we are going to make it!”
J.O: From there, the strongest in the team climbed ahead, because I was already suffering serious edema...
How did you know?
J.O: I was very tired, and had a strong pain in my chest. I wondered where the hell my heart was. Ok, I know where it is, but I had lost my mind. It had been aching for a long time, but I thought, at first, it was my backpack, perhaps too tight around my chest.
And then the Summit, around 6:00 pm...
J.O: I got there last.
E.P: No, I was the last.
J.O: The last steps were plainly impossible to take. I couldn’t bear the pain.
Did it feel the same as back on Kanchenjunga, when you where helped down by the Iñurrategi brothers?
J.O: Oh, yes. I am convinced that since a certain age and at a certain altitude I always suffer from the same symptoms: I also lose my sight.
What about you, Edurne. What do you recall from the summit?
E.P: Nothing. Just stress. The others wouldn’t even let me take a breath! Silvio and Mikel told me: “Come on, come on, let’s go down!”. I only managed to to shoot a couple of pics. All there was, was the wind and people shouting. Someone telling me to pose for a picture... Nothing, nothing, nothing.
J.O: 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.
Tuesday: Final part 3
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, climbers in deep snow near the summit; second picture, House's Chimney in the beginning of the summit bid; third picture, final slopes before the summit of K2.
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