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K2 missing climbers - full story
Agu 3, 2004 15: 10 EST
Originally published August 2, 2004.
One hour ago ExplorersWeb contacted the Magic Line climbers straight in Base Camp and this is their full story on the current situation:
On July 28th, at 11.00 AM local time the weather was rapidly worsening. In the third wave of the summit bids, climbers were at the time coming back from the summit or turning back from their attempt. All, except for Alexander Gubaev, a Mountain guide from Kyrgyzstan. Alexander was on the Bottleneck at 11 AM where he met Inaki Ochoa, who was descending from the summit.
Inaki told Alexander that the conditions were very bad up there and suggested that he should turn around. Alexander continued up. That was the last time anybody have seen or heard from Alexander.
Meanwhile, Sergey Sokolov from Russia and Davoud Khadem Asl from Iran were in Camp 4. They didn't try to summit that day, but didn't go down either. They wanted to wait for Alexander and they also had hopes that conditions would improve the next day and allow for a summit push. Sergei and Davoud spent the night of the 28th at Camp 4, along with the Andalusians who had aborted their summit bid.
The next day, the Andalusians tried to convince Sergei and Davoud to come back down with them, as they feared the conditions would not improve. On the morning of the 29th the Andalusians descended while Sergei and Davoud stayed in Camp 4. No news were released about the stranded climbers until August 1 at 2 PM local time. That's when a call came through over a radio, received by "someone named Vladimir in Base Camp," according to the Magic Line. (Ed note: This is possibly Vladimir Suviga from Kazakhstan.)
The call came from Sergei and Davoud, stating that they were leaving Camp 4 and try to reach camp 3. In that moment, the Magic Line team learned about the situation and gathered a rescue team. 9 people, among them Jordi Tosas, Valen Giro, 3 sherpas from the Japanese team and a doctor from the Andalusian team headed up. They planned to reach Camp 2 but were forced to abort the attempt due to very bad weather and heavy snow fall.
The rest of the climbers of the International team, including Vladimir who had received the radio contact abandoned BC during the weekend. The expedition Pakistan liaison officer left Base Camp one day before the call. The only climbers still in the Abruzzi Base Camp are members of the Japanese expedition, who will launch another summit bid on the Abruzzi as soon as weather conditions improve.
A miracle is now needed to save the three climbers. Alexander never reached camp 4 and Sergei and Davoud are still high up on the mountain in hurricane force winds caused by the jet wind that entered the area this past weekend.
Davoud Khadem Asl is the second most accomplished Iranian alpinist with Cho Oyu (2000), Shisha Pangma (Central summit?), Makalu (2001) and Lhotse (2002).
Alexander Gubaev is the senior coach of the Kyrgyzstan national climbing team. Alexander is an accomplished high altitude climber often climbing together with Denis Urubko, Andrey Molotov and Simone Moro.
K2 has already claimed 3 climbers this season: June 11 the three Korean climbers Lee Hwa-hyong, 36, Kim Jae-yong, 35, and Pae Kyong-kyu, 34, were found dead in their sleeping bags in a crevace covered with snow. They had perished when their camp was hit by an avalanche.
Original story published Aug 2 was edited Aug 3 with confirmed names Sokolov/Asl.
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