Film honours climber’s bravery

In Aug 2008, 24 climbers from several international expeditions converged on High Camp of K2, the last stop before the summit of the most dangerous mountain on earth.

Forty-eight hours later, 11 had been killed in the worst climbing disaster on K2, near Pakistan’s northern border with China.

Among the dead was Ger McDonnell, a mountaineer and engineer from Kilcornan, Co Limerick, and the first Irish person to reach the summit of the world’s second-highest peak.

Calamity struck on the descent when a huge serac, or column of ice, swept down a treacherous gully known as The Bottleneck, about 350m below the summit.

Surviving members of Mr McDonnell’s team say he refused to descend K2 because he was helping injured climbers, some of whom were left hanging upside down, suspended by climbing ropes.

His extraordinary valour is the subject of The Summit, a documentary film due to premiere at the London Film Festival this weekend.

As the film shows, Mr McDonnell, 37, faced a heart-breaking dilemma when he encountered three climbers tangled in ropes and running out of time.

“When a climber falls or wanders off the trail, the unwritten code of the mountain is to leave them for dead. Had Ger McDonnell stuck to the climbers’ code, he might still be alive,” says the introduction to The Summit, which was chosen to be screened as part of the official competition for a London Film Festival Grierson Award for best documentary.

The Summit was produced by Image Now Films and Pat Falvey Productions.

Fellow adventurer Mr Falvey said of the film: “I’d like to send a personal thanks to all the team in the production of this film. Also to all who participated in being part of this amazing story and for the support given by all of the families and climbers in the making of this film documentary of The Summit.”