원정 개요

BC at Chinese BC
ABC at traditional location
C1 at traditional location
C2 at " "
C3 at " "

On 7 May 5 persons and Tarke Sherpa left at 12:30 am NST from C3 to attempt summit (Abrego, Alvarez, Ibanez, Lopez and Valencia). Alvarez turned back 100m above C3 due to exhaustion. Ibanez turned back due to exhaustion at 8050m. Abrego, Lopez and Sherpa Tarke continued on. Mari Abrego and Agustin Lopez arrived at the summit at 2:30 pm NST. They saw crosses on the summit and Mt. Everest. As Abrego and Agustin climbed down visability became bad due to clouds. Below the summit plateau Agustin told Mari to head down and catch up with Tarke Sherpa. Mari Abrego radioed down at 4:00 pm NST saying he could not see Agustin. Abrego was now at 8000m. Abrego looked for Agustin on the right-hand side of the upper snowfield. Abrego found the pack of Lopez but not him. Abrego begun to walk down in the dark but could not find the way. It was getting dark and cloudy. Abrego radioed to ABC at 7:30 NST to say he was stuck and Lopez might be dead. A Sherpa named Pemba from OTT went from C2 and all the way to Abrego and 300m above C3 (at 11:30 pm NST). Then Abrego and Pemba spent the night at C3. Abrego and Pemba arrived at C2 at 1:00 am NST (approximately) On May 8th Abrego and Pemba went to C2 and arrived there at 2:00 pm NST.

Jose Casimiro and Ang Phurba met them at C2 that afternoon. Everyone thought Agustin Lopez had died the night of May 8. Abrego, Casimiro, Phurba, Tarke and 2 or 3 other Spanish climbing members spent the night at C2.

May 9th: Agustin Lopez arrived at C2 at 5:00 am. He arrived there without any help and without a back pack. Robert Rack initiated a rescue. The rescue team (including Rackl, Dr. Elizabeth Eulerich, many Sherpas and Abrego) put Lopez in a litter and left C2 at 7:30 am. They did not arrive at ABC until 6:00 pm.

May 11th: M. Arraras, Agustin Lopez and Maria Carmen left Base Camp for KTM. The three arrived in KTM on May 12 and left for Madrid May 13th.

Note: In the afternoon on May 7th and May 8th there was bad weather with some wind and a lot of snow coming down.

Pemba, the rescuer, was Pemba Gyalje Sherpa of Pangkoma, Solu, 20/2/73.


Events of Rescue for Agustin Lopez Cho Oyu 1999
Source of information: Mari Abrego, Jose Casimiro (Spanish team)
Dr. Elizabeth Eulerich and Olaf Rieck (German team)
Date: May 17th 1999
Reported by Heather MacDonald

May 6th: Olaf Rieck and Thomas Tuerpe left C1 at 8:00 pm NST, got to C2 at 11:00 am and left C2 at 9:00 pm, to the summit at 1:30 pm NST. The night of May 7th they slept at C3. They reached the summit with the Spanish Sherpa Tarke and on their way down saw Mari and Agustin at the edge of summit plateau (the day now being May 7th).

May 7th: Mari and Agustin reached the summit at 2:30 pm NST. On the way down they met up with their Sherpa Tarke. Just below the summit plateau Agustin told Mari to go down ahead of him with Tarke. Tarke went to C3 and Mari was at 8000m waiting for Agustin. Mari did a quick search and found Agustin's pack but not him. It was getting dark and he radioed for help. Pemba, a Sherpa from OTT, went and got Mari 300m above C3. Agustin had taken a fall on the upper snowfield of Cho Oyu (8000m). He might have been knocked unconscious and so finding his way down took two days due to head trauma and not being able to find the route. The weather was BAD afternoon of May 7th and 8th snowing.

May 8th: Mari Jose, Tarke and 2 other members spent the night at C2. Olaf, Elizabeth, Lydia, Thomas also spent the night at C2.

May 9th: Robert Rackl from Amical German group heard cries at 4:00 am NST and it was Augustin coming into C2 on his own with no pack. Robert gave him cortizone shot and put him on oxygen. They built a litter w/pads and sleeping bags and carried Agustin down to a German C1 on the plateau. There Elizabeth gave him local painkillers injected into his frostbitten hands. They left C2 at 7:30 am NST and reached the upper C1 at 11:00 NST. Then at the traditional C1 Elizabeth gave him more care. She was treating for frostbite, snowblindness, dehydration and trauma to his head. Only his hands were frosbitten. He might lose a little of his pinkies. She also gave him 4.5 ml of dexamethazone in case of altitude illness or cerebral edema. But his lungs were clear. He had cuts on his scalp and a hematoma over his left eye. She also started on IV infusion of glucose for dehydration. They did not ABC until 6:00 pm NST and it took 30 people or more to bring him down. He stayed on the German oxygen from Amical the whole time, until A Lopez left Chinese ABC or even Tingri? Elizabeth administered care until A. Lopez left ABC on May 10th with Miguel Arraras and Maria Carmen. All three left Base Camp (Chinese) on May 11th and arrived in KTM May 12th. They left for Madrid on May 13th. Olaf also reports that the Spaniards he saw at 8000m on his way to the summit were chain smoking and vomiting. They were in terrible shape he said.

* Also note the weather was bad afternoon of May 7th-8th and that
contributed to the difficulties of Mari and Agustin.