No Way Down_ Life And Death On K2 Part 20

CHAPTER TEN.

Eric Meyer and Fredrik Strang provided the account of their time spent in the tent at Camp Four; Chris Klinke provided details of his strobe light. Chhiring Dorje and Meyer supplied information on Dorje's descent, and on his background. Chhiring Bhote offered an account of his climb up the Shoulder with Pasang Bhote; details of Chhiring Bhote's life were drawn from interviews with him, as well as with Virginia O'Leary and Judy Aull. Details of Kim Jae-soo's climb came from interviews with Kim and Chhiring Dorje and from reports in the South Korean press.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Cas van de Gevel's descent from the summit and his encounter with Hugues d'Aubarede on the Traverse was described to me by Van de Gevel. I am indebted to Raphaele Vernay for the use of the blog as a source. Nick Rice, who was with d'Aubarede for many days at Base Camp, and Serge Civera, who visited him at Base Camp, gave insights into his character and state of mind, as did Mine Dumas. Qudrat Ali also offered background and insights. Chris Warner described the death of Stefano Zavka. Van de Gevel described his sighting of Hugues's fall. His description of the encounter with the two Sherpas or HAPs matches Chhiring Bhote's account of his ascent toward the Shoulder with Pasang Bhote. The phone conversation between Cas and Roeland van Oss was related by both men. For details on the effects of high alt.i.tude, I consulted Charles Houston's Climbing Higher Climbing Higher and Mike Farris's and Mike Farris's The Alt.i.tude Experience: Successful Trekking and Climbing Above 8,000 Feet The Alt.i.tude Experience: Successful Trekking and Climbing Above 8,000 Feet (Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 2008) as well as other medical experts. (Guilford, Conn.: Globe Pequot Press, 2008) as well as other medical experts.

Details of Pasang Bhote and Chhiring Bhote's rescue of Go Mi-sun were related by Go and Chhiring Bhote.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

The description of Jumik Bhote's leading the Korean team from the summit was drawn from interviews with Go Mi-sun and Chhiring Dorje. Marco Confortola described what is likely the collapse of the serac or an avalanche that caught Bhote and the remaining Korean climbers. Both Wilco van Rooijen and Confortola offered descriptions of the Korean climbers and the likely series of events that led to their being trapped in the ropes. Virginia O'Leary and Judy Aull provided insight into Jumik's life and his character and his relationship with the Korean team. O'Leary's blog was another wonderful resource: http://ginnynepal.blogspot.com On the blog, she described the actual puja ceremony for Jumik in Kathmandu, on which my own description was based.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Details of Marco Confortola and Gerard McDonnell's bivouac were related by Confortola and Agostino da Polenza. Wilco van Rooijen provided the account of his meeting the other two men and their decision to stay overnight above the serac. Annie Starkey, Sajjad Shah (the Norit team's Base Camp manager in 2008), Eric Meyer, Cecilie Skog, Wilco van Rooijen, Cas van de Gevel, Roeland van Oss, and Jelle Staleman all offered insight into McDonnell's time on K2, as did his brief blog.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

The details of Wilco van Rooijen's descent were drawn from my interview with him in Voorst, his conversations with my own fact-checker, Mark van de Walle, as well as from interviews he gave to wire services and magazines in the wake of the disaster. He also outlines his long climb down in his own book. Maarten van Eck, Roeland van Oss, and Chris Klinke provided descriptions of his telephone calls from the mountain.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

The description of Gerard McDonnell and Marco Confortola's struggle to save the trapped Korean climbers and Jumik Bhote was provided by Confortola's official post-accident statement, his book, and several interviews I conducted with him. For the controversy surrounding Confortola's account, please see the Epilogue.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

The scene at Camp Four on the morning of Sat.u.r.day, August 2, was drawn from interviews with Eric Meyer, Fredrik Strang, Paul Walters, Lars Nessa, Cas van de Gevel, Chhiring Dorje, Chris Klinke, and Roeland van Oss. Meyer also provided insight into Pemba Gyalje's condition and conversation. Various climbers, including Walters and Dorje, recalled seeing the figure above the serac. The decision by the five climbers to go down to Base Camp was recounted by Meyer.

Cas van de Gevel provided the account of the return up the Shoulder with Pemba Gyalje. Chhiring Bhote and Pasang Bhote's progress up the Shoulder and Bottleneck was described by Chhiring Bhote and Chhiring Dorje, Pemba Gyalje offered an account of his discovery of Marco Confortola, which Annie Starkey backed up with records of the radio calls; she also offered insight into Pemba's thinking at the bottom of the Bottleneck. For the descriptions of the avalanches, I relied on testimony by Gyalje, and interviews with Chhiring Bhote and Marco Confortola. Confortola detailed the return to Camp Four.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

The scene at Base Camp, and the location of the climber in orange on the south face of the mountain, was drawn from interviews with Chris Klinke, Roeland van Oss, Jelle Staleman, and Maarten van Eck. The various climbers' descents came from Alberto Zerain, Nick Rice, Cecilie Skog, Lars Nessa, Mike Farris, Chuck Boyd, and Andy Selter. Jerome O'Connell and Pat Falvey provided information on the McDonnell family's vigil in Ireland. Eric Meyer described his fall above Camp One.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

The description of Wilco van Rooijen's further attempt to descend, and the effort by Cas van de Gevel and Pemba Gyalje to locate him, was based on interviews with Van Rooijen, Van de Gevel, Roeland van Oss, Chris Klinke, Jelle Staleman, and Maarten van Eck. Chuck Boyd and Andy Selter also provided information on the rescue effort at Base Camp.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

The account of Wilco van Rooijen's rescue was related by Van Rooijen, Cas van de Gevel, Chris Klinke, Roeland van Oss, and Maarten van Eck. Marco Confortola provided details of his descent. The description of Cecilie Skog in Base Camp was based on interviews with Skog, Lars Nessa, Chuck Boyd, and Andy Selter. The descent of Van Rooijen, Van de Gevel, and Pemba Gyalje was described by Roeland van Oss, Jelle Staleman, Van Rooijen, Van de Gevel, and Sajjad Shah.

Details of the scene in the medical tent were drawn from Eric Meyer, Chris Klinke, Lars Nessa, Wilco van Rooijen, Sajjad Shah, Fredrik Strang, and Strang's film, A Cry from the Top of the World A Cry from the Top of the World.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

For the account of the climbers' departures from the mountain, I relied on the Norit team's blog, and on interviews with Roeland van Oss, Wilco van Rooijen, Cas van de Gevel, Chris Klinke, Eric Meyer, Chuck Boyd, and Andy Selter. Lars Nessa, Sajjad Shah, and Chris Klinke described the visits to the Gilkey Memorial. For the account of the Koreans' departure, I drew from various Korean press reports, as well as on my interviews with Eric Meyer, Lars Nessa, Chuck Boyd, and Andy Selter. The description of the helicopter journey and the military hospital in Skardu (where Gerard McDonnell recovered in 2006, and Wilco van Rooijen, Cas van de Gevel, and Marco Confortola were treated in 2008) was based on my experiences in the Karakoram in 2009.

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