MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block. Today, the last known survivor of the disaster on K2, Italian climber Marco Confortola, was air-lifted off the mountain. Eleven climbers died on K2, the world's second-highest mountain. Two died in the ascent and nine more after a series of ice shelves collapsed last Friday.
Yesterday, Confortola managed to hobble back to base camp. He was helped in the final stretch and treated there by Dr. Eric Meyer, an American physician.
Meyer spoke with us today on a scratchy satellite phone line from base camp at 16,500 feet. I asked him to describe the Italian climber's condition.
Dr. ERIC MEYER: He was very exhausted, but he was able to walk quite well on his own. His balance was moderately impaired due to his frostbite and not being able to feel portions of his feet, and we helped him out with a couple of ski poles.
BLOCK: Dr. Meyer, I've read that there's a climber from Nepal on your expedition who did reach the summit and got safely back to base camp. What did he say about what happened up there?
Dr. MEYER: His name is Sirin Dorje(ph). He's from Nepal, and he was a regular member of our team. We were lucky to have him. He was able to reach the summit without supplementary oxygen and back down again. He said it was the most difficult thing he'd ever done.
Part of what made descent much more difficult was that a series of ice avalanches or serac collapses occurred during the time when parties were descending from the summit, and this effectively destroyed some of the ropes that were in place, trapping them effectively above Camp Four. Sirin was able to down-climb that section along with a few other climbers and reach Camp Four that evening.
BLOCK: And what did he tell you about the climbers who were not able to make it down? Did he see what happened?
Dr. MEYER: He passed some of those same climbers on the way down. They had found the ropes missing. Some of those climbers had decided to spend the night above the fixed lines. Sirin and several others opted to keep down-climbing in the absence of these fixed ropes and take their chances, and he was fortunate to be able to do that successfully.
BLOCK: I'm sure this is always a question in mountain climbing. If you see other climbers in trouble, and you're in trouble yourself, do you stop to help them out or do you keep going?
Dr. MEYER: Well, that's the (audio loss) in the mountains all the time. You know, when you're above 1,000 meters your ability to help other people is definitely impaired, but Sirin and others actually that made it down did help other people to the extent that they were able to in terms of rope. And you have to remember that the people that were climbing on oxygen, their oxygen had run out by this time. That creates a very dangerous situation when you're climbing on oxygen above 8,000 meters and your oxygen runs out.
So the people that made it down did whatever they could, you know, to help the people that were not able to.
BLOCK: Dr. Meyer, you're an experienced mountaineer yourself. Do you think, looking back now, were there too many people trying to summit at the same time? Was experience an issue here?
Dr. MEYER: Well, you can always say experience was somewhat of an issue. Myself and two other members of our team elected not to go above 8,100 meters. There were too many people in too small an area moving too slowly underneath extremely hazardous overhanging ice terrain, and that the possibility that if we had summited, we would be returning to Camp Four very, very late made us think twice about continuing to the summit, and we're glad we turned back.
BLOCK: You know, there's an American climber, Nick Rice, who's been blogging from base camp there, and he says that conditions are deteriorating at base camp. You hear daily avalanches, cascades of rock, but there are still climbers arriving who are going to try to summit K2.
Dr. MEYER: That's true. There are a very limited number of people still left here on K2, less than a dozen that are attempting to climb the mountain at this point, and that's down from probably 70 or 80 a month ago.
So the mountain is deteriorating in terms of warm conditions are melting out, as well as ice avalanches occurring daily on K2 and the neighboring (audio loss)...
BLOCK: Well, are they crazy? I mean, why would they summit in those conditions, or try to?
Dr. MEYER: Well, there are some people that are showing up now thinking, well, now that there's fewer people, maybe climbing conditions will be a little easier. There are some fixed ropes still in place. There are some tents that are still up in place, and they may be hoping to take advantage of previous expeditions climbing it.
BLOCK: Dr. Meyer, as you think about leaving K2 now, obviously this was far from the climb that you would have imagined. Does it change how you feel about mountaineering, about climbing, about possibly coming back to K2?
Dr. MEYER: Well, you know, coming here I knew that K2 is a very dangerous mountain, but like any type of mountaineering, it involves judgment and decision-making the whole way through.
I feel like our team made good, solid decisions. Granted, I didn't achieve the summit. I wouldn't say that I would never come back here. I might come back under the right circumstances. It's just a mountain, I think, that has to be approached with a great deal of respect. There are a great many mountaineers that have summited this mountain and not lived to tell the tale. It's one thing to get to the top; it's another thing to get to the top of this mountain and down safely.
BLOCK: Well Dr. Meyer, thanks for talking with us. I'm sure you're exhausted, and I appreciate it. Good luck getting back down off K2.
Dr. MEYER: It's been a pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much.
BLOCK: That's Dr. Eric Meyer speaking with us from base camp on K2 in Pakistan. He says his team will leave the mountain the day after tomorrow. The hike out will take between four and five days. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
