By :
Ramin Shojaei
Edited
by: Sheyda Saneinejad
This summer our team of five climbers
tackled a new route on Broad Peak west face. It consisted of Aidin Bozorgi
(24), Mojtaba Jarahi (28), Pouya Keyvan (24), Afshin Saadi (43), and me, Ramin
Shojaei (47), as the leader. Aidin, Mojtaba, and Pouya climbed the new route alpine
style and tragically lost their lives descending the summit.
Since then I can’t stop thinking about this
entire ordeal. I try to understand what went wrong, and what we could have done
to save their lives.
This is an account of this climb. I
appreciate if you share your thoughts with us.
***
We had a dream to climb a new route on
Broad Peak since 1998. Until 2009, we always failed to finance our expedition.
Well, except once; Kazem Faridian and I went for it on 2005. Due to various reasons
we never put our hands and feet on the new ground. Eventually in 2009 we
managed to arrange a rather big team to tackle the new route.
That year a team of 10 from Arash
Mountaineering Club led by Kiomars Babazadeh sieged the route. After 43 days we
managed to climb the first half of the route. (You can read a short account of
that climb here http://aaj.americanalpineclub.org/climbs-and-expeditions/asia/pakistan/baltoro-muztagh/2009-broad-peak-by-r-shojaei/).
Aidin, Afshin, and I (as technical leader) were among the 10 climbers in that
team.
In 2011, a team of 6 climbers from our club
attempted the next half, from camp 3 at 7000m on the normal route to the west
face and above. They ran out of time and abandoned the expedition after fixing
350 meters of rope on the traverse. Their attempt gave them invaluable
experiences though, as no Iranian had ever walked on new ground at such an
altitude. Aidin, Afshin, and Mojtaba were the 3 climbers who fixed the rope on
the traverse (I was not in that expedition.)
This year we chose to climb alpine style
from camp 3 to the top. Based on the experiences gained from the last 2
expeditions we felt that the alpine style ascent of that section was possible,
faster and even safer. In 2009, we had some close calls that were mainly caused
by exhaustive rope fixing on the route.
Anyway, on June 26th, 2013 we
reached base camp. We shared services at base camp with 6 other climbers;
Americans Scott Powrie, John Quillen, Brian Moran, Canadian Ron Hoglin,
Mongolian lady Badamgarav Gangaamaa (Ganga), and another Iranian Azim
Berahmani.
From
left to right: John, Ron, Afshin, Aidin, Pouya, Ganga, Mojtaba (Photo: Scott
Powrie)
From
Left to right: Aidin, Afshin, Scott, Ron, Brian (Photo: Iranian team archive)
From
left to right, top row: Berahmani, Afshin, Asghar, Mojtaba, Ganga, Sultan,
Pouya, Ramin
Bottom
row: Ron, Aidin (Photo: Scott Powrie)
For acclimatization I chose a system which
can be simplified as climb high-sleep high. I had learned it from great
Ukranian climbers in my first visit to Pakistan in 1997. That year I had led a
team of 11 climbers to Rakaposhi (7788m) south west spur in which 6 of us
climbed the summit (read more at http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12199831502/print).
On June 28th we started our
acclimatization on the normal route. During the next 3 days we climbed to 5300m
(so called lower camp 1), camp 1 at 5650m, and camp 2 at 6100m. I was the only
one who suffered from this way of acclimatization with severe headache. Others
were totally comfortable and had no complaints. At the time I thought it’s
because I live in a lower altitude location than my fellow climbers - I live in
Toronto,Canada at around 100m from sea level while others live in Tehran,Iran
at 1200m. Also, they had the chance to climb to 4000m+ peaks every weekend,
something I could not do.
We rested for 2 days at base camp and
started our next phase of acclimatization on July 4th. First we reached
camp 2 and then to 6600m where we pitched our tents. Again I suffered from
severe headache while others were totally fine.
Our first plan to tackle new route, in
2009, was to traverse to the west face from camp 3 (7000m). We had also
considered another option to traverse to the west face from 6600m. But we
deferred the decision until we could have another look at the 2 options. If we
had decided to traverse from 6600m that spot would have become our camp 3.
We had planned to spend July 6th,
at 6600m and climb to camp 3 carrying nothing but water and snacks the
following day. Aidin and Pouya wanted to climb to camp 3 and stay there for the
night. Mojtaba had toothache, which he felt was due to lack of good
acclimatization. So he wanted to climb to camp 3 and descend to base camp the
same day.
On his way to base camp, at around 1 PM,
just below camp 1, Mojtaba saw Brian who had fallen and broken his leg. John
was lowering him down alone. So Mojtaba didn’t hesitate to give him a hand. It
took them 3 hours to reach 5300m to the site of lower camp 1. It was 4 PM now,
scheduled time for radio contact. John asked for more help and Pakistani rope
guys[1]
rushed for help.
Brian had to wait for 5 days at base camp
before a helicopter flew and took him down. (Note: Brian has undergone a lot of
surgeries since then and is still dealing with his shattered leg. We all pray
for a quick recovery for him.)
[1] This year a group of Pakistanis fixed the route and asked everybody
to pay for it. We called them “rope guys”.
Mojtaba
on slopes above camp 2 (Photo: Iranian team archive)
The next morning, July 7th, was
cold and windy so Afshin decided to stay in the tent. I had better clothes and
climbed up to 6800m and studied 2 possible traverses to the west face. Aidin,
Mojtaba, and Pouya had done the same the day before. After some time Aidin and
Pouya climbed down from camp 3 and we descended together to the base camp.
Now it was time to decide who would be our
summit team. Aidin, Mojtaba, and Pouya were the strongest. I was the most
experienced but I was not sure if I was acclimatized well (Later I figured out
that it takes me longer to acclimatize than average climbers). If I didn’t perform
well it could cost the whole team their ascent. I felt it was unfair to risk
the ascent of those 3 who were fit and capable of climbing the route fast. So,
ultimately Aidin, Mojtaba and Pouya were chosen to climb the new route.
I should mention here that we had tried to
find GPS coordinates of the normal route, especially above camp 3, but this was
not available.
I estimated that the route would take 2
days to finish. One day to do the technically challenging sections ending at
around 7350m, and one day to the summit. We decided that summit team should
carry another day of fuel and food just in case. Descent would be from normal
route, or if it made sense, the same route they had climbed.
Aidin and others had told me that in 2011
fixing rope to the end of traverse had taken around 5 hours. This time they
didn’t require fixing so I thought it would take even less time. Also, they
would use an ATC Guide belay device so that two people would be belayed at the
same time.
The three of them shared a 2 person tent,
with no fly,. Aidin and Mojtaba preferred to have down jackets and sleeping
bags and Pouya just down jacket and pants.
July 13th was the first day to
tackle the new route. Summit team started their climb at 7 AM. By 5 PM they had
only reached the end of the traverse. Aidin told me on the radio that ice
condition was worse than 2 years ago. They had specially faced difficult
terrain on a rock-ice section. It was obvious they would not reach 7350m that
day. There was a small col at around 7050m that they could pitch their tent to.
They reached there at around 7:30 PM and stayed for the night.
Afshin and I climbed from camp 2 to camp 3
that same day. We hoped to climb the normal route the next day and possibly
greet the other 3 on the summit. But now we decided to wait at camp 3 and start
our own climb the next day.
Traverse
to the right of camp 3 and the route climbed by our team (Photo: Iranian team
archive)
The morning of July 14th I
talked to the other 3 and Aidin told me they didn’t rest well last night as the
ledge was too small and they could only sit. I warned them to be careful not to
lose their concentration due to lack of sleep, but they started strong with a
good spirit. It was rather steep ice and it took them another day before they
reached 7250m to a place where they could build a platform for their tent and
rest well for the night. First thing I asked them when they reached there was
about snow/ice condition; it was not ice anymore but snow.
Afshin and I prepared ourselves for our
summit bid that afternoon. It was a cold night with strong wind. I woke up at
12 midnight. 2 Polish climbers passed beside our tent and I followed an hour
later. Afshin didn’t have adequate clothing and felt very cold after a few
meters. So he decided to stay behind. I was fast and didn’t feel cold at all.
The weather was so-so, but at around 6-6:30
AM it started to snow and visibility became very low. I was at around 7700m.
Ironically it was the same spot and time I had to turn back 8 years ago due to
bad weather. I didn’t want to wait for the weather to improve. I had other more
important things to worry about. It was summit day for our new route team!
I was not able to reach them by radio. We hadn’t scheduled to talk at that time.
Also, a huge rock pillar was between us and I thought it could be the reason
why they didn’t get my call. So, I decided to descend to camp 3 and share my
thought with them regarding their summit bid.
I reached camp 3 at 9 AM and managed to
talk to them at 9:20. Aidin was on the radio and I strongly recommended they
should leave their loads behind, go for the summit as fast as they could, and
descend from the same route they had climbed. Aidin rejected this idea as he
thought they had to rappel all the way down, which in his opinion was difficult
and time consuming.
At 11 AM I tried to convince them again and
told them: “it’s not a 4000m traverse. The weather may get even worse and
you’re going to descend from the normal route which is unknown to you while you
are familiar with your own route.” They rejected my idea again.
At around 1 PM they told me they were just
1 hour below the summit. It turned out they had estimated incorrectly. At 7:30
PM we talked again. They still believed they were just 45 minutes below the
summit (Weeks later I found out that some other climbers had made the same
mistake when climbing Manaslu and Makalu. They had estimated they would reach the
summit in half an hour and it took 5-6 hours in reality). The sky was clear
that night.
The next day at 7 AM, Mojtaba called and
told me that they had had a bad night as their tent platform was not good. I
left my radio on, hoping to talk and cheer them on as soon as they reach the
summit, and then waited, and waited...
Hours passed and they didn’t call. I was
worried sick as they didn’t have any food or water by now and they were around
8000m. I thought maybe one of them had hit the wall and couldn’t walk anymore.
At 2 PM I called base camp to find out if they had called anybody by satelite
phone. They hadn’t.
Eventually at 4 PM Mojtaba called me. His
voice was tired and rather hopeless. He told me they were exhausted and 30m
below the summit which could take another hour. He asked me what my orders would be. I was surprised as I had
never ordered them anything, well, except a few times. They were strong,
experienced, mature, and smart, so there was no need to order. It was obvious
they could not decide among themselves what to do; up or down?
As I was very concerned I told them,
without any hesitation, to leave everything they didn’t need behind, including
the tent and extra equipment and rush to the rocky summit and to the camp 3.
Mojtaba just said: “Sure, we will”. I said: “call me again when you are at the
rocky summit and we will start climbing from camp 3 towards you”.
At 5 PM Mojtaba called me again. I was
expecting him to tell me he was on the rocky summit. But he was happy and
energetic and said: “Sorry Ramin, we disobeyed you. We are on the summit now.”
I said: “Congratulations! But I’m not happy
until I see you safe and sound at camp 3. I don’t know how or from where, but
find every bit of energy you can and come towards camp 3.” He replied: “OK,
we’ll do”. Our radio battery was going to die so I didn’t want to talk more. I
was hoping we could catch them somewhere below the col (the col at 7800m
between middle and rocky summit). Azim Berahmani did listen to both of these
last 2 conversations. He also congratulated them.
Afshin and I packed and started towards the
col. It was less windy, therefore less cold, than the night before. But I was
slow this time. It took me twice the time to climb the same distance. I sent
Afshin back to camp 3 after an hour, as I was the problem and I didn’t want him
to suffer because of me. I couldn’t feel my toes any more after some time. 3.5
hours passed and I hadn’t climbed much. I saw the effort pointless. Because if
I would get frostbite it would only make matters more complicated. So I turned
back towards camp 3. I reached there at 9:30 PM. We had scheduled to talk at
10. But nobody was on the other side but Iranian Berahmani at base camp.
He told us that the other 3 had contacted
at 8 PM stating that they stayed on the col between the 2 peaks. At this time
our radio battery totally died. It was the spare battery we had. So from this
point on we could not contact anybody.
I asked Afshin to go up by himself tomorrow
morning, as I had no hope of reaching anywhere. Afshin agreed but something
silly happened during the night and most of his clothes got wet. He could not
go up anymore.
The next day starting 8 AM the weather
conditions got bad again. While in most bad days we had some periods of clear
weather, that day was one of the worst and it rarely cleared until 5 PM.
At around 10 AM, they had contacted Ron at
base camp and told him that they could not find fixed rope on the normal route
and were asking for direction. Ron, who had climbed the rocky summit a few days
earlier tried to guide them the best he could. Ron remembers they were talking
about a yellow band which was surprising to him.
Yellow
(or brownish) band near the rocky summit is visible in this photo. Rocky summit
is to the left (Photo: Thomas Lammle)
We at camp 3 didn’t know about this
conversation. At 1 PM I told Afshin to get ready and if they didn’t show up at
or around col by 4 PM, he should rush down and ask for a rescue team. I asked
him to send me a charged battery too. At 2 PM we accidently found out our radio
battery is working again, maybe for a few minutes. I contacted base camp and
talked to Berahmani and he said the summit team had lost their way. I asked
them to arrange a rescue team. He told me a rescue team had already been
arranged. Mike Horn, and Swiss mountain guide Fred Roux were ready to climb
tomorrow. I told him Afshin would come down tonight.
Later that day at around 7:30 PM, Aidin
called Iran and told them they had rappelled a couple of rope lengths only to
find out they had taken the wrong route. They had climbed back which took a lot
of effort and energy and now they were 50m below the col.
At 8 PM I called base camp with the small
amount of battery left and asked about the rescue team. Berahmani said there
would be no such team as Mike and Fred asked for GPS coordinates, otherwise it
would be pointless to climb. I asked about Afshin and he said he was not at
base camp yet.
Later I found out Afshin had fallen into
the glacial river from a bamboo bridge. It was the same bridge and the same
river that a few weeks back a German lady had fallen into and lost her life.
Afshin went down the river for some 20m but miraculously managed to save
himself by using his ice axe.
Bamboo
bridge on glacial river (Photo: Iranian team archive)
Left
to right: Mike, Kobi Reichen, Fred, Ramin, Afshin (Photo: Iranian team archive)
Next morning was quiet and windless.
Unfortunately, the 3 climbers were by now so exhausted they could not move at
all. They were in contact with our friend in Iran through satelite phone and
were asking for help. Unfortunately the fact that they were still in contact
with Iran was missed in base camp and no one knew about it.
That morning a Pakistani high altitude
porter, Aziz, left base camp at 4 AM and reached me at camp 3 at around 1 PM.
By this time a thick layer of fog had gathered around camp 3 and above and
visibility was almost zero. I was so weak at this time that I could not go up
with him and he refused to go by himself. So I got ready to accompany him.
After an hour I had walked a short distance, maybe 30m or so. I sat on the snow
for another hour but could not climb at all.
I asked Aziz, begged him, and told him we
pay you anything you want, please go up. But he didn’t want to go by himself. I
asked him how many children he had: he had 5. I couldn’t insist anymore. I told
him to go down and I would come later on my own when I could. Before leaving
camp 3 I asked base camp once more if summit team had contacted anybody. The
answer was no. I talked to Ron this time as Berahmani had left for his summit
bid early that morning.
I felt absolutely heartbroken. I envisioned
myself as a mother whose kid is under a heavy rock and she can’t lift it. And
the only thing she can do is to watch her kid suffer.
I was so weak that the rappel to camp 2,
which is done normally in an hour, took me 2.5 hours. A Mexican couple, Badia
and Mauricio López Bonilla with their HAP, and Ganga with her 2 HAPs were
there. They were going to climb to the summit the next few days.
I contacted base camp and Sultan, ATP base
camp manager, asked me to talk to Ganga and request if she would agree to
abandon her climb and release her HAPs so that they can help us in the rescue
effort. She accepted with no hesitation and I’m always grateful for her kind and
selfless character.
Then I talked to Sarvar and Asghar, the 2
HAPs, and asked them if they were ready to help. Fortunately they were fit and
ready for the summit and willing to help. I gave them my radio hoping they
would find the boys somewhere on or below the ridge.
Aidin contacted Iran again that night. They
asked him to call base camp but he could just push the green button to redial.
He had frostbite on his fingers and toes. He sounded disoriented and confused.
He was talking about the other two who were asleep or didn’t want to move.
The next day was Friday July 19th.
Ganga and I climbed down together. To my surprise I saw Mike and Fred at 5300m.
They told me Aidin had contacted Iran and was still alive. I just didn’t know
how to thank them. Farther down I saw Marty Schmidth, his son, Denali, and
Chris Warner who were climbing up for help. He asked me how come they had not
made any contact yesterday and suddenly their satellite phone battery started
working again today? I had no answer. He also asked if their families could
afford a helicopter flight. I told him I’ll find out at base camp. They went up
and I went down (Sadly, Marty and his son died a few days later on slopes of
K2).
Later that day I realized that Mike and
Fred turned back from camp 1. They had contacted a physician in Switzerland who
had told them that it’s very unlikely for someone to survive this long at such
an altitude. Marty and his team also came back. I guess they didn’t believe
Aidin and others were still alive and thought the communication story was just
a lie to convince people to go for help.
I reached base camp and managed to talk to
my friend, Kiomars Babazadeh, in Iran. He assured me there were indeed
conversations between him and Aidin all this time. I believe through chaos and
confusion, which is very common at these kinds of crisis, and also
miscommunication due to different languages spoken, no one knew about it at
base camp.
I asked Kiomars if they could make a
request for a helicopter to fly. We both knew there was no chance of rescue at
that altitude, at least with Pakistani helicopters, but I suggested maybe they
could search the area and take some high resolution photos so that we could
later on investigate and look for any clues for where they may be.
Aidin had asked for help again that
morning.
July 20th. There was talk about
a helicopter flight. With help of another friend, Homayoon, and Iranian chargé,
Mr. Hossein Ravesh, it was promised that the next day we would have a flight
with a German professional rescuer, Thomas Lammle.
At around 2 PM, we received another call
from Iran stating that Aidin is still alive and begging for help. No one was
around except Afshin and Aziz. And they started to go up at 4 PM. I reached
Mike and Marty again and asked them if anybody was ready to help. I promised
reward money for anybody who could find them, even if they can’t help them
down. But nobody was willing. They were basically saying that they still didn’t
know where they were and it was impossible to find someone in such a massive
mountain. Also, the chance of their survival was very slim.
Aidin called for the last time that
evening. His last words were: “If nobody helps me I will end up like the other
two.”
July 21st. It was a sunny day
and 2 helicopters flew to base camp. Thomas was with them. He was under the
impression that there was an injured or sick climber at camp 4 and he needed to
take some oxygen with him and bring the sick climber down. I explained the
situation and told Thomas that we didn’t even know where exactly they were.
They flew one more time and took some photos. Unfortunately they didn’t have
high resolution cameras and nobody found anything in the photos.
The helicopter crew asked if we had their
gps coordinates, which we didn’t. We had tried to get coordinates from Thuraya,
the satellite phone company but it was not an easy task. Ultimately Iran’s
president, Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad, had to get involved so that we could get the
coordinates that afternoon. Helicopters had already left.
Using Google Earth our friends in Iran
spotted their location. It shows that the last call was made from somewhere on
the north-west pillar.
Using
Google Earth our friends in Iran spotted their location. (Photo: Thomas Lammle)
Afshin went up to camp 3 and stayed there
for the night.
2 days later we called off the rescue
effort. We concluded that they were very hard to reach and with the work force
at base camp it was impossible to reach them.
On July 25th we left base camp
for Skardu.
From
left to right: Pouya, Aidin, Mojtaba (Photo: Iranian team archive)
1:
Normal Route. 2: First ascent team in 1957 took this line to climb from camp 2
to camp 3.
3:
Iranian route 2009. 4: Iranian route 2013. (Photo: Usman from Helicopter crew)
More reading:
Tempting the Throne Room: By
John Quillen
Bittersweet
Homecoming, by Scott
Powrie
Iranian Climbers were Quality Human Beings |
Interview with John Quillen
"Iran could not have picked better
representatives for the country" | Interview with Scott Powrie
