PSM
08-07-2008, 23:29
My wife and I were coming back from camping in the local mountains and heard on the radio that a Hermosa Beach "man" was one of the survivors of the K2 tragedy.
This evening I learned that he was our back door neighbor's son, Nick. We've known him since he was 6 months old. He's 23 and I still think of him as a "boy".
A couple of months ago I saw him preping his gear. It looked like what I'd take for a two week backpack trip except for the Costco bag of toilet paper he had. He never mentioned he was headed for K2.
Here's the story from the local paper:
City News Service
(CNS) In the wake of 11 climber deaths that underscored K2’s reputation as the world’s most dangerous mountain, a Hermosa Beach climber who survived the disastrous expedition described the base camp as “a cage that everyone wants to escape.”
But Nicholas Rice’s death-defying experience high on the peak - and the loss of so many comrades since a deadly Aug. 1 accident - have not deterred the Mira Costa graduate from planning to return to the remote Karakoram Range in northern Pakistan for another attempt on the so-called Savage Mountain.
“I will for sure come back,” Rice, 23, said in a satellite phone interview with National Public Radio.“There’s something about this mountain that draws us all to it.”
There were reportedly up to seven other expedition teams on K2 as the tragedy began unfolding Friday above 25,000 feet elevation. Climbers from Pakistan, Nepal, South Korea, Serbia, Norway and Ireland are among those presumed dead from an avalanche and exposure to the harsh elements.
Rice was part of the French-led expedition up the mountain. About two dozen people were part of the expedition, but 11 were reported dead, with most being killed by an avalanche or exposure to the fierce elements when ice cut through fixed ropes high on the mountain. Others reportedly died trying to save the injured.Rice was one of the few remaining climbers at base camp.
According to his online dispatches, Rice was high on the mountain over the weekend, when a combination of falls, an avalanche and exposure killed members of his French-led expedition. His team leader, Hugues D’Aubarede, 59, was among the reported fatalities.
Rice made it to Camp IV above 25,000 feet without supplemental oxygen, but he turned back and descended to base camp after one climber fell to his death and ice cut fixed lines on a steep section below the summit known as the “bottleneck.”
Rice has been posting online updates of his team’s progress and the tragedy. He remained focused in his postings, but his writings also gave a glimpse at the toll the tragedy was taking on him.
“After my first decent night’s sleep in a week, I woke up and went down to have breakfast with the last team member remaining in my base camp, Peter,” Rice wrote Sunday, Aug. 3.
“He is, however, heading down today, and I will have to complete my stay in base camp alone, faced with the grim task of packing my climbing partners’ and friends’ belongings, and informing their embassies and families of their grim fate,” Rice wrote.
A climber he called Wilco - identified in media reports as Wilco Van Rooijen - was helped down the mountain with severely frostbitten feet after five nights above 8,000 meters, or 26,250 feet, a region known among high-altitude climbers as the “death zone” for its lack of oxygen and exposure to the elements.
Two others were also still descending - Cas, who made a miraculous down-climb of the Bottleneck where the fixed ropes were cut, and Marco Confortola, who was found unconscious with his gloves off and harness half off.
Another dispatch Rice posted was titled “Summit Push - The Final Cost.”
“After a quiet breakfast alone in base camp, Sultan helped me sort through Karim and Baig’s belongings and pack them for the journey back to Skardu,” Rice said.
“I headed up as Wilco was taken up in a (gurney) to the makeshift helipad that the Americans had constructed,” Rice said. “We all watched as Eric was loaded in the helicopter so he could swing up close to Camp II on the Abruzzi route to check the progress of Marco on his descent.
“After that was finished, we waited as Wilco was loaded into the helicopter to be evacuated, and then again when Cas was loaded into the second helicopter to be taken down.”
Rice composed a list of the dead and, apparently accepting the death of his team leader, he listed D’Aubarede among the confirmed fatalities.
In a dispatch posted online Tuesday, Aug. 5, Rice paid tribute to his expedition leader.
D’Aubarede and Rice met trekking in the Askole region of Pakistan, French climber and expedition coordinator Raphaele Vernay said in an e-mail from Lyon, France.
Rice visited the Gilkey Memorial, a collection of aging climbing gear and mementos from previous tragedies on K2. Art Gilkey died in a 1953 American expedition in which the team abandoned its attempt to be the first ever to summit K2 to try to save Gilkey, who was stricken by illness at high altitude.
Gilkey died in an avalanche, but the 1953 American team earned worldwide respect for the courage and compassion they demonstrated in trying to save their teammate.
“(I) headed down to Gilkey Memorial to put up the plates we had made to memorialize Hugues, Karim, Gerard and Baig,” Rice wrote in his post. “It was ironic, as the last time I had gone was with a happy healthy Hugues. I am, however, happy that he in the end achieved his goal.
“This was his third year in a row on K2, and finally he had made the summit and lived his dream,” Rice wrote. “It is a shame that triumph and tragedy seem to come hand in hand on K2.”
Rice said he was keeping his fingers crossed for two Italians still awaiting possible helicopter rescue higher up the mountain at advance base camp, but the weather wasn’t looking good. In the main base camp at the foot of K2, the pain of so many deaths in such a short time cast a pall over those who remained.
“Base camp now seems like a cage that everyone wants to escape,” Rice wrote.
Deteriorating mountain conditions seemed to mirror the somber mood in base camp, he said.
“Every evening, we hear cascades of rocks falling down the slopes around us,” Rice wrote. “Huge pieces of ice are crashing down in the icefall, and avalanches roar down the slopes of all the peaks around us daily ... rivers flow down where once consolidated snow was ... It almost seems as though the mountain is weeping for the recently deceased.”
In his interview with NPR, Rice recounted how spilling water on his socks delayed his departure from Camp IV early Friday, a mishap that may have saved his life. He headed back to the base camp without reaching the summit, but insisted he wanted another shot at it.
“Maybe not next year, maybe not the year after that,” Rice said. “But I can say in my lifetime I will for sure come back here. There’s something about risking your life ... for something you love, and testing your body to its maximum that you can’t do in a completely safe environment. Without risk, we aren’t living.”
K2’s summit stands at 28,251 feet elevation, making it second-highest in the world to Mount Everest. But K2’s exposure to jet-stream weather systems, the rapidly changing snow, ice and rock conditions, and its steep upper reaches are considered a more difficult and potentially deadly challenge.
Only a few hundred have made it to K2’s summit since the first successful ascent in 1954 by an Italian expedition. Rice’s Web site is www.nickrice.us/index.htm Play Audio
http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2008/08/07/hermosa_beach_news/news02.txt
My condolences to the families of the dead.
Pat
This evening I learned that he was our back door neighbor's son, Nick. We've known him since he was 6 months old. He's 23 and I still think of him as a "boy".
A couple of months ago I saw him preping his gear. It looked like what I'd take for a two week backpack trip except for the Costco bag of toilet paper he had. He never mentioned he was headed for K2.
Here's the story from the local paper:
City News Service
(CNS) In the wake of 11 climber deaths that underscored K2’s reputation as the world’s most dangerous mountain, a Hermosa Beach climber who survived the disastrous expedition described the base camp as “a cage that everyone wants to escape.”
But Nicholas Rice’s death-defying experience high on the peak - and the loss of so many comrades since a deadly Aug. 1 accident - have not deterred the Mira Costa graduate from planning to return to the remote Karakoram Range in northern Pakistan for another attempt on the so-called Savage Mountain.
“I will for sure come back,” Rice, 23, said in a satellite phone interview with National Public Radio.“There’s something about this mountain that draws us all to it.”
There were reportedly up to seven other expedition teams on K2 as the tragedy began unfolding Friday above 25,000 feet elevation. Climbers from Pakistan, Nepal, South Korea, Serbia, Norway and Ireland are among those presumed dead from an avalanche and exposure to the harsh elements.
Rice was part of the French-led expedition up the mountain. About two dozen people were part of the expedition, but 11 were reported dead, with most being killed by an avalanche or exposure to the fierce elements when ice cut through fixed ropes high on the mountain. Others reportedly died trying to save the injured.Rice was one of the few remaining climbers at base camp.
According to his online dispatches, Rice was high on the mountain over the weekend, when a combination of falls, an avalanche and exposure killed members of his French-led expedition. His team leader, Hugues D’Aubarede, 59, was among the reported fatalities.
Rice made it to Camp IV above 25,000 feet without supplemental oxygen, but he turned back and descended to base camp after one climber fell to his death and ice cut fixed lines on a steep section below the summit known as the “bottleneck.”
Rice has been posting online updates of his team’s progress and the tragedy. He remained focused in his postings, but his writings also gave a glimpse at the toll the tragedy was taking on him.
“After my first decent night’s sleep in a week, I woke up and went down to have breakfast with the last team member remaining in my base camp, Peter,” Rice wrote Sunday, Aug. 3.
“He is, however, heading down today, and I will have to complete my stay in base camp alone, faced with the grim task of packing my climbing partners’ and friends’ belongings, and informing their embassies and families of their grim fate,” Rice wrote.
A climber he called Wilco - identified in media reports as Wilco Van Rooijen - was helped down the mountain with severely frostbitten feet after five nights above 8,000 meters, or 26,250 feet, a region known among high-altitude climbers as the “death zone” for its lack of oxygen and exposure to the elements.
Two others were also still descending - Cas, who made a miraculous down-climb of the Bottleneck where the fixed ropes were cut, and Marco Confortola, who was found unconscious with his gloves off and harness half off.
Another dispatch Rice posted was titled “Summit Push - The Final Cost.”
“After a quiet breakfast alone in base camp, Sultan helped me sort through Karim and Baig’s belongings and pack them for the journey back to Skardu,” Rice said.
“I headed up as Wilco was taken up in a (gurney) to the makeshift helipad that the Americans had constructed,” Rice said. “We all watched as Eric was loaded in the helicopter so he could swing up close to Camp II on the Abruzzi route to check the progress of Marco on his descent.
“After that was finished, we waited as Wilco was loaded into the helicopter to be evacuated, and then again when Cas was loaded into the second helicopter to be taken down.”
Rice composed a list of the dead and, apparently accepting the death of his team leader, he listed D’Aubarede among the confirmed fatalities.
In a dispatch posted online Tuesday, Aug. 5, Rice paid tribute to his expedition leader.
D’Aubarede and Rice met trekking in the Askole region of Pakistan, French climber and expedition coordinator Raphaele Vernay said in an e-mail from Lyon, France.
Rice visited the Gilkey Memorial, a collection of aging climbing gear and mementos from previous tragedies on K2. Art Gilkey died in a 1953 American expedition in which the team abandoned its attempt to be the first ever to summit K2 to try to save Gilkey, who was stricken by illness at high altitude.
Gilkey died in an avalanche, but the 1953 American team earned worldwide respect for the courage and compassion they demonstrated in trying to save their teammate.
“(I) headed down to Gilkey Memorial to put up the plates we had made to memorialize Hugues, Karim, Gerard and Baig,” Rice wrote in his post. “It was ironic, as the last time I had gone was with a happy healthy Hugues. I am, however, happy that he in the end achieved his goal.
“This was his third year in a row on K2, and finally he had made the summit and lived his dream,” Rice wrote. “It is a shame that triumph and tragedy seem to come hand in hand on K2.”
Rice said he was keeping his fingers crossed for two Italians still awaiting possible helicopter rescue higher up the mountain at advance base camp, but the weather wasn’t looking good. In the main base camp at the foot of K2, the pain of so many deaths in such a short time cast a pall over those who remained.
“Base camp now seems like a cage that everyone wants to escape,” Rice wrote.
Deteriorating mountain conditions seemed to mirror the somber mood in base camp, he said.
“Every evening, we hear cascades of rocks falling down the slopes around us,” Rice wrote. “Huge pieces of ice are crashing down in the icefall, and avalanches roar down the slopes of all the peaks around us daily ... rivers flow down where once consolidated snow was ... It almost seems as though the mountain is weeping for the recently deceased.”
In his interview with NPR, Rice recounted how spilling water on his socks delayed his departure from Camp IV early Friday, a mishap that may have saved his life. He headed back to the base camp without reaching the summit, but insisted he wanted another shot at it.
“Maybe not next year, maybe not the year after that,” Rice said. “But I can say in my lifetime I will for sure come back here. There’s something about risking your life ... for something you love, and testing your body to its maximum that you can’t do in a completely safe environment. Without risk, we aren’t living.”
K2’s summit stands at 28,251 feet elevation, making it second-highest in the world to Mount Everest. But K2’s exposure to jet-stream weather systems, the rapidly changing snow, ice and rock conditions, and its steep upper reaches are considered a more difficult and potentially deadly challenge.
Only a few hundred have made it to K2’s summit since the first successful ascent in 1954 by an Italian expedition. Rice’s Web site is www.nickrice.us/index.htm Play Audio
http://www.tbrnews.com/articles/2008/08/07/hermosa_beach_news/news02.txt
My condolences to the families of the dead.
Pat