GILGIT, Pakistan (AFP) — A severely frostbitten Italian climber on Tuesday faced another day marooned as clouds and rain grounded helicopters trying to pluck him from K2, the world's second highest mountain.
Marco Confortola survived an avalanche on Friday that killed 11 climbers, and with help from Pakistani guides he reached a camp just over two-thirds of the way up the 8,611-metre (28,251-foot) Himalayan peak on Monday.
But rescuers said they feared the choppers would not be able to take off on Tuesday because of storms and thick cloud around the mountain, which climbers regard as tougher and more dangerous to scale than Everest.
"I don't think a rescue mission would be possible today," said Colonel Ilyas Mirza, a senior official of Askari Aviation, an army-linked company based in the northern town of Skardu that operates the rescue choppers.
"The weather is still bad, flying in Skardu and beyond was not possible this morning. Normally it takes two or three days to improve the weather in the area," Mirza told AFP.
Confortola had been expected early Tuesday to reach advanced base camp -- which is slightly lower than his current position and from where he could safely be evacuated by helicopter -- but he was still not there, a statement from the company said.
Italian embassy spokesman Oddo Sergio said Confortola's progress was slow because he was suffering from severely frostbitten feet.
But Mirza said that the helicopters, specially equipped for high-altitude missions, remained on standby.
"Our helicopters are ready, waiting for an improvement in the situation. They may try to make an attempt this evening if the weather improves even for a few hours," he said.
"Such missions are quick. It may not take more than one or two hours to bring the climber down."
Army helicopters on Monday rescued two Dutch mountaineers from K2 . They tried to reach the Italian on Monday as well but were prevented by storms.
Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, an Irishman, a Norwegian and a Frenchman died in Friday's avalanche, the worst disaster ever to happen on the mountain.
A pillar of ice broke away in a steep gully known as the Bottleneck near the summit and swept away fixed lines used by the mountaineers as they made their descent.
One Spanish mountaineer who saw the doomed climbers as he was heading down the peak said they may have begun their ascent too late in the day.
"They were far from me, hours away, but they were not turning around," Alberto Zerain told the online edition of Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
"But then I thought, they know what they are doing," said Zerain.
Italian climbers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were the first to scale K2 on July 31, 1954. Between then and 2007, there were 284 successful ascents and 66 fatalities.
In the same period, Everest was summited 3,681 times, with 210 deaths.
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