Climber’s family travel to Pakistan for meeting with expedition leader

THE brother and girlfriend of the Limerick climber confirmed dead in the Himalayas are preparing to travel to the area to meet the leader of the ill-fated expedition.

Gerard “Ger” McDonnell, 37, was among 11 people from several teams killed on Saturday while descending the world’s second-highest mountain.

On Friday, Mr McDonnell, from Kilcornan, Co Limerick, became the first Irish person to reach the summit of the 8,611-metre K2 mountain on the Pakistani-Chinese border — considered the most dangerous in the world.

The adventurers were hit by a catastrophic ice avalanche at about 8,000m as they made their way down to safety. Pakistan’s ministry of tourism yesterday released a list of 11 climbers, including Ger McDonnell, believed dead.

One Swedish survivor, Fredrik Strang, described how people “froze to death” during the night. He also spoke of a sense of foreboding after a Serbian climber and a Pakistani plunged to their deaths on the ascent.

Mr McDonnell’s brother JJ and girlfriend Annie Starky will fly to Pakistan in the coming days to meet the leader of the seven-man expedition, who was rescued suffering from frostbite.

Adventurer and family friend of the McDonnell’s, Pat Falvey said a meeting was being arranged in the Pakistani capital Islamabad for JJ and Ms Starky. “Our thing at the moment is that some family members will be going to Pakistan hoping to meet up with the expedition leader of Ger’s team, Wilco Van Rooijen.

“Arrangements will be made to have a debriefing session hopefully in Islamabad,” said Mr Falvey.

Details of when or where the meeting will take place have yet to be finalised. It is thought they will fly out within a week and spend two or three days there.

They are also expected to speak with Mr McDonnell’s other climbing colleagues who were with him on the expedition. Mr Falvey said Mr McDonnell’s belongings from base camp are being organised and packed to be returned to his family in Ireland.

Preparations for a memorial service for Mr McDonnell, whose body is not expected to be found, are under way. “They [the family] are holding up well and are very proud of Ger’s achievement and are still in total shock in relation to the fact that he may not be coming back,” said Mr Falvey.

“At high altitude at over 8,000 metres, it is too dangerous to mount a rescue to have the bodies returned.”

Three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, a Norwegian, a Frenchman and Mr McDonnell are all thought to have been killed.

The rescue operation has now being scaled down but a plane is on standby to fly over the mountain when cloud lifts.

The disaster happened when 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.

It is understood there could be more climbers missing although the exact number remains unknown.

Tributes were paid to Mr McDonnell, who had been working in Alaska as an oil company engineer for the past 10 years, by President Mary McAleese and Arts Minister Martin Cullen.

President McAleese, who personally met Mr McDonnell earlier this year following a previous expedition of his to the South Pole, expressed her sympathies at the “truly heartbreaking” events.

A total of 49 climbers have died on K2 since 1952 — 22 while descending from the summit.

Mr McDonnell, who lived in Alaska, failed to reach the summit of the mountain two years ago after he was hit by a rockfall and was airlifted to hospital.

K2 is regarded as more challenging than Mount Everest because of its steeper routes and unpredictable weather.

Only 189 climbers have reached the summit since the 1950s, compared with about 1,400 for Everest.