ukwebfan
08-04-2008, 10:30 AM
K2 disaster (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080804/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_missing_climbers_18)
Van Rooijen said several expeditions waited through July for good weather to scale K-2 and decided to go for the summit when winds dropped on Friday. In all, about two dozen climbers made the ascent, officials said.
But Van Rooijen said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,250-foot peak, including in part a treacherous gully known as as "The Bottleneck."
"We were astonished. We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore," said Van Rooijen, 40.
He said those who went on reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest climbers descended in darkness across The Bottleneck, about 1,148 feet below the summit, a huge serac, or column of ice, fell. Rooijen said a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness.
Van Rooijen said several expeditions waited through July for good weather to scale K-2 and decided to go for the summit when winds dropped on Friday. In all, about two dozen climbers made the ascent, officials said.
But Van Rooijen said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,250-foot peak, including in part a treacherous gully known as as "The Bottleneck."
"We were astonished. We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore," said Van Rooijen, 40.
He said those who went on reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest climbers descended in darkness across The Bottleneck, about 1,148 feet below the summit, a huge serac, or column of ice, fell. Rooijen said a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness.
