원정 개요

BC at Hillary BC
C3 at Makalu La.

Independent team on Makalu led by Giampaolo Casarotto - 18 May 2008

The team made C1 at 6100m on 26 April in their acclimatization climb but slept there only that one night. The next day they made C2 at 6700m, and on the 28th went back to ABC.

During this acclimatization, Castagna's toes on both feet became frostbitten because her new boots had not been broken in and the weather was very cold (-30 degrees C.).

Despite her frostbite, Castagna continued to climb. They went up again from ABC to C2 on 1 May and put C3 on the Makalu La at 7300m on the 2nd of May. They returned to ABC on the 3rd.

They began their summit push from ABC to C2 on 8 May. They climbed to C3 on the 9th and made C4 at 7700m on the 10th.

On 11 May they left C4 for the top at 12:30 am (half an hour after midnight). They met Waldemar Niclewicz, the Brazilian leader of the the Latin American expedition, in their ascent and moved with him. Casarotto reached the summit at 9:00 am with two Sherpas from Carlos Soria's team and one from the French team led by Francois Marsigny after the French members had abandoned their own big for the summit. Casarotto stayed an hour on the top. The weather was very good, not windy.

In his descent, Casarotto met Castagna on her way to the summit about 100m below it. She got to the top at 11:00 am with Niclevicz's summit party, and during her descent she met Ralf Dujmovits, who was on his way up.

Casarotto reached C4 at 2:00 pm, but it took Castagna there more hours to arrive there. She had stopped with Niclevicz on the summit for photos and moved very slowly because of her toes. Casarotto waited for her in C4 and as soon as she arrived, they descended together to C3, where they arrived at 7:00-7:30 pm.

On the 12th they left C3 at 7:30 am and were back in ABC at 2:00 pm. They went to BC (Hillary BC) on the 14th, and on the 16th, because of Castagna's frostbitten toes, they flew by helicopter to Lukla and by scheduled flights to Kathmandu.

The team had not taken oxygen with them, but Castagna was given some above C4 for two minutes by Niclevicz because the weather was so cold.

Niclevicz and Burda said 18 May that Castagna was hypothermic, and they gave her some of their limited supply of hot tea; she even asked for more, but they had very little to spare. They kept waiting for her when they descended to make sure she was all right.