Hardwear Sessions

The precise circumstances of Gerard MacDonnell's disappearance has been one of the most enduring questions of the K2 tragedy. A story written by Omar Waraich in the UK paper The Independent on August 9th (purportedly based on Mr. Confortola's first newspaper interview after the tragedy) seemed to suggest that the three Koreans died in their presence: "For three hours, McDonnell and Confortola tried to right them, but it was in vain. All three died. It was at that moment, "for some strange reason", that McDonnell began to walk away." A lengthy article in Men's Journal written by Matt Powers (who also was in Islamabad interviewing the survivors) reported that: "By mid-morning, Marco and Gerard had left the Koreans and continued toward the traverse... Suddenly, Marco said later, Gerard turned around and began to climb back up the slope, back toward the Koreans, offering no explanation." Finally, Michael Kodas wrote in Outside Magazine that: "They spent three and half hours trying to free the Koreans but gave up when the glacier let loose nearby and reminded them of their perilous location. McDonnell, perhaps confused by the lack of oxygen, climbed back up the slope toward the summit. Confortola shouted to his friend but couldn't get his attention. Then he heard an avalanche and recognized two yellow boots in the slide."

Pemba's account of the radio transmission requires that the overall tragedy be re-examined. It seems possible, if not probable, that Gerard McDonnell continued efforts to revive Jumic Bhote and the two Koreans after Van Roojen and Confortola descended, and that McDonnell succeeded in getting the injured climbers mobile so that they could descend the Traverse to the top of the Bottleneck, where they were met by the rescue team of Pasang Bhote and Tsering Bhote. Sadly, many published accounts have portrayed McDonnell's final actions as being irrational, perhaps the result of hypoxia or hallucination. It now seems quite likely that McDonnell nobly continued rescue efforts right up until the moment he was killed.

It is readily clear that the media owes the family, friends, and loved-ones of Gerard MacDonnell an apology for so misrepresenting his memory. As someone who's written about K2 a lot, I include myself as being partly to blame. In "Heros in Fine-print", I implied that McDonnell, along with Van Roojen and Confortola, had abandoned the Koreans, while the Sherpas launched a rescue. Abandoned is a very strong word, and it bears nothing in common with what I now believe were Gerard MacDonnell's final actions.

There are still lots of unanswered questions as to what exactly happened on August 1st-2nd on K2. Marco Confortola has written a lengthy testimony that details his recollections of the summit push: http://www.montagna.tv/files/K2_testimony_of_marcoconfortola_1.pdf Wilco van Roojen has yet to provide a similarly detailed account.