Elisabeth Revol at the press conference in Chamonix

“We could have saved Tomek.” With this sentence, the French mountaineer Elisabeth Revol has triggered a debate. Could her Polish rope partner Tomek Mackiewicz still be alive, whom, suffering from severe high altitude sickness and slowblindness after their summit success on Nanga Parbat, she had had to leave at 7,200 meters, if the rescue at the end of January had started faster? On the late evening of 25 January, Revol had made several emergency calls. “It’s a race against the clock when you set off a rescue,” Elisabeth said at a press conference in Chamonix on Wednesday. “It took, in fact, 48 hours for something to happen. So clearly I have a lot of anger inside of me – and Tomek could have been saved if it had been a real rescue carried out in time and organized.”

Price forced up
The anger of the 37-year-old is expressively directed neither against the climbers of the Polish K2 winter expedition, who had ascended in high speed and brought her back to safety, nor against the helicopter pilots, but against the Pakistani organizers of the rescue operation. Ludovic Giambiasi, a friend of Revol, had tried from France to launch the search for the two climbers in distress. He spoke of “delays and problems”. So the price was forced up from $ 15,000 to $ 40,000, “cash, on the table”, said Ludovic. According to their own information, the government of Gilgit-Baltistan province has set up a commission to investigate the allegations.

Climbers in difficulties have to descend

Revol was flown out by helicopter

Compared to Nepal, where helicopter rescue from the highest mountains is privately organized and now works with Western support quite professionally, Pakistan still lags behind. The Pakistani military has been strictly controlling the air traffic in the Northern Areas due to the tensions with India lasting for decades. Rescue Operations are conducted by Askari Aviation, a subsidiary of the Army Welfare Trust. The helicopters are provided by the army and flown by former air force pilots. For a rescue on the long rope from heights above 7,000 meters, as it is now practiced almost routinely on Mount Everest, the gutted special helicopters, used in Nepal, are missing as well as the staff specializing in this dangerous way of rescue. In 2005, a Pakistani helicopter team succeeded in bringing the Slovenian top climber Tomaz Humar on the rope from 6,000 meters in the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat down to safety. However, such operations are not routine in Pakistan. Expeditions, whose members have been running in great difficulties, are explicitly required by Askari Aviaton to make an effort to bring the climbers down to a safe height for helicopter landing below 5,500 meter.

“Swimming time on Manaslu”, Elisabeth writes on Facebook: “Snow, snow, snow…”

And again snow wins. French climber Elisabeth Revol and her companion Ludovic Giambiasi have abandoned their winter expedition at Manaslu. This is reported by the Kathmandu-based newspaper “The Himalayan Times”. Heavy snowfall and strong winds in the high camp forced Elisabeth Revol to give up, Rishi Bhandari, head of the Nepalese expedition operator Satori Adventures, told the newspaper. The French team has already broken off their base camp and descended to the village of Samagaon. According to Bhandari, Revol had reached an altitude of 7,300 meters at Manaslu and had planned a summit attempt for Tuesday.

Heavy snow is not uncommon

In case of success Elisabeth Revol would have been the first woman to have reached the 8,163-meter-high summit in Nepal in winter. Heavy snow is not uncommon on Manaslu. An attempt by the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger and the Italian Simone Moro in winter 2015 had also failed due to the snowmasses on the mountain. In January 1984, the Polish climbers Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski had succeeded the first winter ascent of the eighth-highest mountain on earth.

Alex Txikon at the entrance of Western Qwm

Winter expeditions are not for wimps. “Today we have climbed up to 6,050 meters to build Camp 1”, the Basque Alex Txikon wrote in his blog from Everest on the weekend. “At the moment, we have less than minus 30 degrees Celsius.” After all, the team of eleven – Alex, his Spanish countryman Carlos Rubio and nine Sherpas, including two “Icefall doctors” experienced in dealing with the dangerous Khumbu Icefall – are quicker than expected. At the beginning of last week, Txikon had assumed that it would take four weeks to reach Camp 2 at 6,400 meters.

“Runner of death”

Steadily threatening Seracs

This could happen earlier because the most dangerous part of the route, the Icefall, is already behind the team. Alex called a passage of about 150 meters, flanked on both sides by ice blocks, “the runner of death”. “An area that makes the breath freeze and our hearts beat even faster,” the 35-year-old wrote. “The truth is that it impresses a lot, since on both sides seracs do not leave anyone indifferent. Undoubtedly, we have made the effort to control and confront our fears.” Txikon and Rubio want to climb Everest without bottled oxygen. This feat has been achieved in winter only by Ang Rita Sherpa, on 22 December 1987, under particularly favorable weather conditions and on the very first day of the calendrical winter. Since 1993 nobody has been on the summit of Everest in the cold season.

Heavy snow on Manaslu

Elisabeth Revol on Manaslu

Snow digging and trudging is necessary on Manaslu. Since the beginning of the year two and a half meters of fresh snow has fallen, wrote the Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol on the weekend on Facebook. “Each afternoon it’s snowing in Base Camp, so it’s not simple for acclimatization.” Her team mate and compatriot Ludovician Giambiasi “fights with the coldness and discovers what winter means. But anyway it’s hard, but great time on then mountain … alone.” In the past years Revol had tried three times in vain to climb Nanga Parbat in Pakistan in winter. In case she now succeeds, Revol would be the first woman in winter on the 8,163-meter-high summit in the west of Nepal. In winter 2015, the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger and the Italian Simone Moro had fought in vain against the snow masses on Manaslu.

Eilsabeth Revol in Manaslu BC

And another winter expedition. After it had looked for a long time as if the eight-thousanders would stay in winter sleep this time, now at least two of the highest mountains in the world are visited in the cold season. As reported, the two Spaniards Alex Txikon and Carlos Rubio will try to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. They are expected in Base Camp shortly after the turn of the year. The Frenchwoman Elisabeth Revol has already pitched up her tents at the foot of the 8,163-meter-high Manaslu in Nepal.

Cold and windy

The 36-year-old wants to scale the eighth-highest mountain on earth, also without breathing mask. “We are in winter: It’s cold and windy. But weather is okay for now,” Elisabeth writes from Manaslu Base Camp on Facebook. She is accompanied by her countryman Ludovic Giambiasi, who is supposed to climb up only to Camp 2 at about 6,400 meters.

Three failed attempts on Nanga Parbat

In case she succeeds, Revol would be the first woman in winter on the summit of Manaslu. The first winter ascent of this eight-thousander was made in January 1984 by the two Polish climbers Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski. In winter 2015, the South Tyrolean Tamara Lunger and the Italian Simone Moro were literally sunk in snow. Elisabeth Revol has already proved that she is “hardy”, with three winter attempts on Nanga Parbat: In 2012/13 along with the Italian Daniele Nardi and in 2014/15 and 2015/16 with the Pole Tomasz Mackiewicz. In her most successful attempt, she had reached with Tomek an altitude of 7,800 meters in January 2015.