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K2 Magic Line final dispatch - We lost an unconditional friend
Oct 6, 2004 19: 48 EST
Previously published Aug 25, 2004
The Magic Line climbers, the best expedition of the 2004 K2 season, leaves Pakistan saddened by the death of team-member Manel de la Matta. Yesterday, they sent their last dispatch from Islamabad. It's their own recount of the events that took place since August 17. The Magic Line team climbers are expected to arrive back to Barcelona within the next hours. This is their full report:
A dream come true
“August 16th we celebrated a dream come true: The Summit of K2 via the Magic Line. "Coro" -Jordi Corominas- reached the Summit in a solo bid at 24:00 h.
Oscar Cadiach and Manel de la Matta joined the summit bid along with Corominas from their last Camp at 8100m. They decided to turn around at 10:00h, from 8300m, due to cold and exhaustion - the climbers were not suffering from Altitude Sickness of Pulmonary Edema, as we all had thought. After a short rest in the tent at 8100 m, Oscar and Manel descended together back to Camp 3 (7500m), on the Pulpit glacier. They reached Camp 3 at 16:00h and spent the night there.
Descending and making new plans
The next morning, August 17th, Manel and Oscar kept descending. Despite the increasing bad weather and their exhaustion, they were both happy and content. On their way down, they talked about future projects and new climbs to attempt in next months. They slept in Camp 2 (6.900 m). The next morning, Wednesday, they climbed back down to Camp 1 (6.400 m) on the Negrotto Col, where they reached early.
Acute stomach pain
It was then when Manel, for the first time, began to complain of acute abdominal pain. It prevented him to breath normally. His anguish would increase in the next hours. Oscar, always by his side in the tent, helped Manel to re-hydrate, eat and keep warm.
"Help Negrotto"
Communication with BC was broken by then, as the severe cold had exhausted the batteries in the climber’s radio unit.
But Wednesday evening at 20:00h, Oscar was able to send a short SOS; “Help Negrotto” over the radio. One hour later, at 21:00h in the night, in the middle of a snow storm, Valen Giró, along with Baltí Ghulam, set of from BC with some food and medicals.
The high avalanche-risk forced them to retreat shortly after. At 3:00 in the morning of Thursday, August 19th they left BC again, to climb up to C1 on the Magic line. Meanwhile, in Camp 1 at Negrotto Coll, at 4:30 am on August 19th, Manel de la Matta passed away in Oscar’s arms.
Manel was the climbing leader
When we talked about it later, Oscar would say that although he himself was the expedition leader - Manel was without doubt the ‘climbing leader’. He had always every single detail of the climb ready, foreseeing everything: gear, food, maintenance of high camps, ascent strategies, safety on the route, etc.
Manel was indeed the ‘motor’ of our expedition. The way in which he understood the mountain made us all realize that we had to be totally self-sufficient (independent) to get to the summit and back to BC. This is a rule sadly not so respected by many other expeditions on K2 this season, which has caused trouble to other groups.
Loved the mountains. always
Since his early youth, Manel always had a special bond with the mountains: They were his passion, his life. He understood the mountain as few others; he respected it, he enjoyed it, he took it as a not just sport but also a personal challenge. He accepted the mountains through both their good and bad times.
He had made remarkable winter climbs in the Pyrenees and the Alps. Patagonia was one of his favorite play-grounds, as well as the Andes, Central America and the Himalayas. He attempted Everest twice, once turning back only 80 meters from the summit. In 1993 he summited Shisha Pangma (8.046 m.) via the prestigious British route and, within days, he’d climbed Cho Oyu (8.201 m) too.
A dedicated teacher
As far as his career goes, although a graduate in Economics he was always involved in Mountaineering.
From his work as a Sport Consultant for COOB '92 –Committee for the Olympic Games at Barcelona ’92- to his job as Technical Director of the High Mountain School or, later, as a Director of the “Escola de Muntanya de les Escoles Pies de Sarrià”.
There he was teaching Sport and Mountain Guiding to more than 300 pupils and collaborated as a translator of Mountain books and guides.
Thrilled by the small things, fearlessly honest
But the best part of Manel was his qualities as a human being: His generosity, his spirit, his thrill by small things, his honesty to see and to criticize some of the hypocrisy in our world...
It was all those things that made his friends and mates realize that he was someone very special. Manel was a man who would give all without expecting anything in return - someone to count on, for the rest of your life, as an unconditional friend.
We lost our best climbing partner to K2, our best friend in the mountains as in life.
Magic Line Team”
Images: Manel and Oscar in a High Camp on August 11 summit attempt.
Below: Jordi Corominas on the summit ridge of K2, with the shadow of the mountain in the background, at 18:00 (6 pm) on August 16th. Right after taking this picture, he contacted BC to report he was 80 vertical meters away from the summit (which he would reach at midnight).
Images courtesy and Copyright K2 Magic Line 2004 Expedition.
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