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San Marino Everest 2009, Antonio Pazzaglia - 24 May 2009

The final push to the summit was made by Piolini and Antonio and Roberto Pazzaglia, who had established C3 on 17 May. (The three plus Perissinosti had made C2 the day before; Perissinosti was cold and very tired, so he went no higher.) The summit party left C3 at 11:00 pm (Chinese time) on the 17th, and Roberto Pazzaglia was on the top at 1:00 pm (10:45 NST) on 18 May. He descended to C2 at 11:00 pm and arrived in ABC at 1:00 pm on the 19th.

Antonio Pazzaglia and Piolini were forced to turn back because tiny pieces of ice got inside their eye sockets and made them temporarily blind. Antonio gave up at 8650m and Piolini at 8700m. They were helped to return to their tents at C3 by Victor Izquierdo and Muktu Lhakpa, two descending summiters from a Spanish team led by Josep Pujante.

Pazzaglia's eyesight was better by the time he got to C3, but his toes were slightly frostbitten. However, Piolini had to be short-roped by Muktu Lhakpa to C3 for that night, to C2 for the next night and to ABC for the third night. Nine of Piolini's toes became more seriously frostbitten as she descended the mountain slowly, slowly.

All three summit-party members used oxygen. Roberto Pazzaglia used it from 8000m to the top; Piolini used it in C3 to 8700m; and Antonio Pazzaglia used it from 8000m to 8650m and down to C2 at 7900m.