Himalaya Mountains. End of January THIS year. And the French-Polish team climbing up to Nanga Parbat. It’s also known as a Killer Mountain and after latest incidents (and writing latest I mean yesterday’s) this name is unfortunately very accurate.
Tomek Mackiewicz tried to climb Nanga Parbat 6 times. After sixth in 2016 he said that it has been the last attempt and he will never come back. But he changed his mind very quickly and decided to try once again in 2018 with Elisabeth Revol – French climber. It was a fourth time for her going to achieve the peak of Killer Mountain. This time they decided to take as few things as it’s possible to make climbing easier. Then, during their adventure, they will learn that it has been a very bad choice, but they were so ambitious and focused on their aim at the moment that the equipment hasn’t been an object. Taking only most necessary things by climber is called Alpine style and many may think that it’s just inmature to climb the mountain known from one of the highest death rate in the world and take actually no equipment but they were probably too determined to reach the peak this time and they haven’t thought about the consequences or that something may go wrong.
This is Elisabeth Revol...
And Tomek Mackiewicz
Good beginning and painful consequences
In the first part of the expedition everything was going well – they were climbing higher and higher and hadn’t bigger problems on the way. It’s not confirmed yet but probably they even managed to reach the peak of Nanga Parbat as second pair in the world– Elisabeth informed her collegue about it. And then during the way down something bad happened.
There was a thick fog near the peak and Tomek decided to take off his glasses to be able to see anything on their way. Probably that was a cause of his snow-blindness of which they learned when being at 7400m ASL. That was a beginning of the end. Tomek started to feel very bad – Elisabeth then told that he couldn’t see anything because of snow-blindness and also he went down with altitude sickness and frost-bites. What does it actually mean?
Remember when it’s winter and snow is everywhere around? You just go outside the house and can’t see anything despite hard light. It’s because the snow reflects more of the sunlight than the grass or something non-white does. Now imagine how hard seeing could be in the mountains where everything around you is just white snow and to make it even harder - you are so high that the sunlight is „closer” to you. Seeing wihout special glasses it just not possible. But what can you do when there is thick fog all around you and you just have to take off the glasses to be able to climb further? You decide to take them off. And so Tomek had done what had painful consequences for his eyes. He had lost his eyesight and had been suffering from headache.
What about altitude sickness? In the mountains air becames more and more thin with every step you take. As I read - on 8000m ASL air has about 70% less oxygen than in „normal” world we are living in. That means that climbers should take oxygen bottles with them to be able to breathe normally. But Alpine style is a little bit different and you just don’t take oxygen bottles –they are too heavy and make climbing harder. Tomek and Eli neither had them. Having so little oxygen in air causes that you breathe in more carbon dioxide – which is known for poisoning body. Carbon dioxide goes to veins with air and make blood more thick (climbers use aspirine to make it thin again but it often ends with stomach problems) . Also lungs begin to fill in with liquid which is the reason of pulmonary oedema. Then you feel dizzy, tired, your head aches, you can’t breathe. You also have fever and bloody caugh. The only cure is to go as low as possible to get more oxygen but sometimes the climber is so exhausted that it’s not possible to move on.
And this time Tomek got sick so bad that Elisabeth had been able to went with him only about 200 metres down to the nearest tent. Even for experienced climber (and Tomasz was one of them for sure) it’s like a lottery whether you get sick or no. We don’t know exactly what had happened there – if Tomek had told Eli to left him and go for help for them or maybe she had decided that there’s no chance for Tomek so she has to save herself. Eli just informed her collegue that Tomek was in very bad condition and she had to left him alone on 7200m ASL.
Rescue team is coming
Eli also wasn’t at her best health condition – she had frost-bites and was very hungry because they hadn’t taken much food. Thanks to her French friend, with whom Elisabeth were texting, more people learned about the whole situation on Nanga Parbat and started to organize a professional help. Near Killer Mountain there was a Polish expedition preparing for climbing K2. Actually they were the only team in the whole world which was able to help Eli and Tomek. They had quickly decided that four of them will fly using helicopter to the height of 6000m ASL in Nanga Parbat, then had been desanted and climb for Polish-French team.
The helpers were Adam Bielecki and Denis Urubko – they created first group which was climbing very fast to reach Eli and they didn’t have much equipment. The second group were Piotr Tomala and Jarosław Botor – they were carrying heavy things to help Elisabeth later.
Courage… but is this enough?
Problems started at the beginning because the helicopter reached only 4850m ASL due to bad weather condition. The climbers had about 1,5 day long journey to meet Eli and around 2 days long climbing to find Tomek. Eli was in constant contact with her French collegue Ludovic Giambasi and he used Facebook to inform people about what was happening at the moment in Nanga Parbat. Below you can see some of his posts which content messages from woman.
Polish rescue team was aware of weather changes – the snow storm was coming. The first group – Adam and Denis – had a GPS tracker with them and many people in Poland could see something incredible. They should reach Eli in 1,5 days but did it… in 8 hours. They were climbing in the night, with no equipment, and with awareness of them being the only people who can help Tomek and Eli. The way was very difficult, Poles had to climb on nearly vertical and icy wall from which Adam had fallen off few years before. But they managed to do it. Eli was in touch with Ludovic and send him the message that she is still going down. In the end the team and French woman met with each other around 6000m ASL and started to transport Eli down the wall.
On this picture you can see how the wall looks like
Not everyone will come alive
The team still wasn’t sure what about rescuing Tomek. The snow storm was coming very fast and they got the information that until 11 am no one should be in the mountains. It was nearly morning when they reached the camp on 4850m ASL, in few hours the helicopter was coming to transport them. 2350m - that was the distance between camp and Tomek. Not possible to climb in only few hours. Not possible for helicopter to fly so high due to thin air. And probably not possible for Tomek to still be alive- in -60 degrees, with many diseases and without food. Eventually the climbers decided not to go back for Tomek. The helicopter came for the team and then Eli was taken to the hospital in Islamabad.
It is supposed that maybe the whole action was planned only for helping Eli (because she was the only one who was alive for sure) but no one said it oficially.
Many feel sorrow because of not rescuing Tomek by Polish team, but in fact it was quite impossible to do. Poles were in risk even when going for Eli – they just couldn’t be sure what is waiting for them, if the weather will be good enough, if they will manage to climb the icy wall, if they will have enough time to help the woman. They were aware that going higher in snow storm would end with no one death but at least 3 or maybe even 5. Also Eli confirmed that Tomek was in agony when she was leaving him so the team would climb probably to see a dead body.
In the morning we could see the information on Ludovic’s Facebook that they are trying to organize a helicopter for Tomek but eventually they lost their hope to find him alive and came back only with Eli. Tomek’s body will probably stay in the mountains forever and will be a kind of sign for other climbers.
To sum up
I think that rescue team did a great job, they were brave and fast, they risked their own lives to help Elisabeth. We shouldn’t judge them for not going for Tomek whom chances to be still alive were very low. They rescued one life and I think that in those conditions is a lot. In Poland they are heroes now and many will cheer on their way to K2.
I decided to write this article in English because in Poland many people know about the whole situation and were following it step by step from the beggining. In world’s media there’s not much about the whole action but the team was so incredible & brave that they just deserve to share their story.
And here is the photo of Eli after rescuing her by Polish team
Thank you for reading
Let me know what you are thinking about this act of heroism.