Simone Moro, almost tragedy on the Karakoum: falls into the crevasse, Tamara Lunger saves him (Ansa archive photo)
ROME – The Italian expedition of Simone Moro and Tamara Lunger to the peaks of the Karakorum could have ended in tragedy. Moro fell 20 meters into a crevasse, bruising his back. For Lunger, a hand injury in securing his climbing partner with the ropes that had been suspended in the void. The Moro-Lunger expedition which included the winter crossing – it would be the first ever – of Gasherbrum I (8080 meters) and Gasherbrum II (8035 meters) has been closed.
“All is well what ends well – wrote Moro on social media – Yesterday we really got to a breath from a tragic and fatal epilogue for both me and Tamara. Today I organized the evacuation with a request for medical tests for both. Today the pains are stronger and the hand of Tamara is partially numb and unusable ".
Simone Moro's full post on Facebook.
All is well that ends well.
Without going too far around the concept, yesterday we really got to a breath from a tragic and fatal epilogue for both me and Tamara.
We intended to spend two nights on the mountain, reach camp 1, sleep there and the next day head to camp 2.
We were FINALLY out of the icefall, we had also passed the last big crevasse and we proceeded on the summit plateau. Always tied because we knew that the crevasses were always lurking and always straight antennae but the high morale and the satisfaction of having overcome everything
The big ice maze.
But the day was not over and what awaited us terrible.
Approaching a crevasse, I always put myself in position to ensure Tamara who first crossed it and then went to the safety area, 20 meters beyond the crevasse.
Then my turn came and after a split second, a chasm opened under my feet and I crashed. Tamara suffered a violent tear that literally flew to the edge of the crevasse and I in free fall upside down for 20 meters, slamming my legs and buttocks on the blades of ice suspended in the endless casing in which I continued to descend. No more than 50 cm wide, all dark.
Above Tamara she had the rope wrapped around her hand and held it like a vise and it caused excruciating pain and numbness. I was in the dark and she slowly slipped on the edge of the crevasse. All complicated by the fact that she had snowshoes on her feet. I managed with one hand to put a very first precarious anchorage and, although I felt myself slowly descending towards the abyss, I had the lucidity of taking the ice screw that I had at the harness and fixing it in the smooth and hard wall of the crevasse. That screw stopped my slip and probable fall into Tamara's crevasse.
From there, without going into details, we invented the way out. Almost two hours later. Contortionism and a thousand efforts allowed me in the dark and crushed between two 50 cm wide walls. and go up the whole crevasse in piolet traction.
Quivering and with a thousand bruises I embraced Tamara who was also crying from the pain in her hand. While I was going up she had managed to organize a nice recovery stop and to make sure I was climbing the endless 20 meters of smooth ice. We went down to the base camp which, already alerted and reassured by radio.
Today I organized the transport evacuation with a request for medical tests for both. Today the pains are stronger and the hand of Tamara is partially numb and unusable. (Sources: Agi and Facebook).
Source: Blitz Quotidiano