High altitude rescue

Fabian and Yannick get HACE involving a major rescue

HACE = High Altitude Cerebral Edema

They are heli evacuated out to Skardu AND ARE OK
(and all the rest of the team are 100% OK - get the message?)

With Yannick and Fabien now in Skardu/Rawalpindi and the rest of our team safe I (Jamie McGuinness) should recount how things went wrong.

Here is the basic account of what happened.

This year on Broad Peak there are a lot of fast teams pushing normal acclimatisation rules. As a semi-commercial team we have to be far more cautious, but some of these rapid ascent attitudes obviously rubbed off, if they can do it, why can't we?

7 July - Camp 2 ~6150m

We have our first camp (Half Camp) at 5350m, then what we call French Camp 1 at ~5750m, 100m higher than the normal Camp 1 since it is full, then Camp 2 at 6150m. Our sub-team of five French have not been keen to stay at Camp Half, instead after one trip on the mountain where they stayed at French Camp 1, they have headed directly to C2, OK if you know you cope with altitude well. They spent two nights there (6 and 7 July), Jamie spent one at Camp Half then one at Camp 2, and discussed AMS and rapid ascents while brewing up outside with the glorious views.

8 July - to Camp 3 ~7200m

Fabien climbing strongly the steep section with K2 behind

Yannick close to Camp 3; yep, the Karakoram!

We set off to establish Camp 3 somewhere (none of us knew the mountain), the French each carrying skis, Jamie carrying the two VE-25 tents, gas and stoves, each carrying his own food. Lower down the five French, all experienced mountaineers, skiers and some real athletes, had been very quick but up here the altitude slowed them down to more normal speeds. There were no safe-looking camp sites, other than a rock site exposed to the wind, and I reached the C3 of Adventure Peaks and several other teams at around ~7200m on top of a large split serac where we set up the two tents, the summiteers passed thru around 17:30, all intent escaping the obvious bad weather coming in. We were prepared to sit it out to acclimatise. The spot didn’t look particularly safe; I instinctively chose the least unsafe; the most sheltered.

9 July

We awoke to light snow. At a new, higher altitude it is particularly important to hydrate and eat, in our tent I brewed water for Denis and Pierre-O and we drank and ate. I didn’t realise in the other tent only Olivier was eating and drinking; Fabien and Yannick slept most of the day.

Mid-afternoon it snowed heavily (half a metre), light powder. With an ominous rumble, a light shake of the ground, we knew a medium-sized avalanche had passed close by. Alarmed, looking outside I saw that the Adventure Peaks tent only 5 metres away had DISAPPEARED, taken by the avalanche, in fact the avalanche had passed only 1 metre away from one of our tents. SHIT, THAT WAS CLOSE.

It was still snowing, the situation was deadly serious. Denis had made a snow hole to brew up in, we saw it was only partially filled in, anyone in there would have survived, so frantically Denis and Olivier constructed a real snow cave while Yannick and Fabien looked on, too tired to work. I investigated a serac slightly higher, but it didn’t seem strong enough to take a major hit.

Denis constructing the snow cave

Thankfully before another avalanche higher up could build and take out our camp it stopped snowing. I slept in the snow cave in my down suit and old One Sport boots with the shovel at the ready, and with most of the crampons and ice axes, the rest slept nervously in the tents. We had had a few distractions that day.

10 July

I woke early only lightly covered in crystal powder to see Fabian peeing outside, then Yannick, only later realizing that something looked slightly odd, perhaps each had been on their knees? Alarmed, Olivier said that Yannick couldn’t stand; he wobbled and fell as if he was horribly drunk. SHIT. Classic AMS, and therefore had 12-24 hours to live, if we stayed here.

Fabien was in the tent rocking and putting his gloves on his feet. Double SHIT. Immediately I gave Fabien 8mg Dexamethasone and 250mg Diamox orally, he was already partially incoherent, Yannick got 4mg and Diamox and water since he was still totally conscious and we got ready, leaving the tents there. Each supported by two people, we set off slowly down the initially steep slope.

Perhaps 100m down (vertical) we saw the remains of the Adventure Peaks tent, the inner of another VE-25 which had been carried down from where we don’t know, and somewhere stood on a packed tent just under the snow.

Fabien was docile and plodded supported, Yannick was more wobbly but more alert, just not able to control balance. We were descending loaded slopes, sticking to the edge of the now covered avalanche path, reasoning it was the hardest and safest snow, but still at least knee deep and roughly 35 degrees.

A third of the way the way dropped off the soft ridge down initially steep snow that looked totally loaded. Denis threw a few rocks, each setting off smallish surface avalanches that continued releasing by themselves for perhaps 20 minutes, but it still looked hideously dangerous. We joined old fixed rope there to about 35 metres and gingerly Pierre-O set out across it to set something bigger off, horribly risky. Incredibly nothing happened and the snow under the surface was bonded better than we expected. Yannick slipped in the first step then again at the end of the rope, I let him slide as the angle softened right out and he could only fall into the soft avalanche debris, which he did with a long slide and a few alarming rolls at the end. He was uninjured and not even shaken. We made the tents at ~6600m which were deeply covered in snow, but still totally Ok, three out of four anyway. Taking it more cautiously Fabien and Denis took an hour more to reach the tents. Here we gave more Dex to Yannick and 20mg Solupred to Fabien, a French medicine for Cerebral Oedema that I wasn’t familiar with. Yannick had recovered his appetite and ate and drank, a great sign, but Fabian seemed to be getting worse; certainly he wasn’t getting better, but he did eat two biscuits with some prompting. He was in a world of his own, clawing at his head, obviously in pain.

Yannick needed less help now and Denis and Olivier were still strong so it was decided I would descend rapidly, pick up the Iranian's emergency oxygen (a huge thanks to them!) at C2 and climb back up to meet them with Fabien. Despite the low visibility luckily I hit the critical beginning of the ropes spot on; getting lost at this point in low visibility could be death. Slogging up again I met them half way down the ropes, Fabian was in a terrible state, shaking from cold and the pressure in his head. 15 minutes of oxygen calmed him slightly, but didn’t do much else. Every gap in the ropes on the steeper ground was a nightmare to maneuver him, and coming into our Camp 2, I dragged him by the feet while Denis kept him straight with a short rope around his chest.

We stripped him off and wrapped him in a sleeping bag in the tent, Denis tenderly caring for him. The oxygen calmed him but even with an 8mg Dex injection by Jeff later, he showed no signs of improvement.

11 July - camp 2 ~6150m

The oxygen had run out. Doctor Deb of the False Canadian team looked at him and gave another 8mg Dex injection. I really, really hoped this would bring him back to consciousness to help us with the descent, but no, he was still unconscious. The International (false) Canadian team, Jeff, Dr Deb, Gary and Paul took over as it was increasingly obvious that only Denis and Olivier who were preparing Fabien we didn’t have enough hands. Wrapped in a sleeping bag and bivvy bag Jeff, Paul and myself using 100m of static rope began lowering Fabien, surprisingly fast and efficiently belaying down. The terrain became easier and Bob and Menno also of their team got into the act. Just as we got Fabien into Camp 1 there were shouts of AVALANCHE! One person was swept perhaps 80m, praising the fact he wasn’t on a descender, which would have ripped out the protection, instead on a simple safety line, he burnt his gloves. I was directly in the path but with seconds warning, could calmly climb out of harm's way. Quick-thinking Paul cut the line between myself and Fabien so that he couldn’t get dragged off.

We were now in a quandary. Malte of our team had bought up medical oxygen courtesy the International Canadian team, Gordon (our team) was about to arrive with Canadian IV fluids, Rose was massaging Fabien's feet, which calmed him somewhat, and we had his oxygen saturation up, but the oxygen system was leaking and required constant attention. There was only one tent left at Camp 1, the rest having been stripped by the summitting teams. Should we stay here rough and stabilize him, or continue descent on sun-warmed dangerous afternoon slopes?

A tough call, and just as Gordon was 40 metres from arriving, we decided to descend to Camp Half, where we had tents. The slopes had avalanched already and with open views there was enough warning for climbers to swing out of the way, probably, anyway, we hoped. We dropped Fabien to Camp Half with plenty of work but no drama, Paul, especially powerful.

Mike Farris of our team and LO "Captain" had been working frantically at BC arranging a helicopter evacuation and seemed to be making headway on a sat phone (Iranian and later Dave Pritt's) with the paperwork, an evac in the afternoon seemed a possibility and certainly tomorrow seemed fairly sure, if the weather was kind so we continued lowering. Gordon's tough wrapping of Fabian succumbed almost immediately to his thrashing around, so we desperately lowered him thru the 'warm' snow in his one piece underwear. At the end of the 580m of fixed line soon more help arrived in the form of some great equipment, a new Skedco stretcher from Dave Pritt's Adventure Peaks. With a smooth tough base we could carry, and on the difficult parts, drag Fabien, well protected. Mike had the foresight to set up a temporary camp on a roughly level piece of the moraine where we optimistically hoped a helicopter could land.

Jeff at the back, next Doctor Deb, Pierre-O, Malte, Paul behind, Denis, Gordon (behind), Mahmoud, Karim

Again Fabien was stabilized, wrapped up and given another injection of Dex and put on an IV drip to combat his undoubted dehydration. Although Dave Pritt had also kindly provided a PAC bag, Fabien was still often thrashing around so we couldn’t risk him in there, instead we put him on oxygen (the excellent new Summit system, again from Dave Pritt...). The oxygen calmed him, but worryingly, still didn’t return him to consciousness. Strangely in the night Fabien stood up to pee a couple of times, still not aware of his surroundings. It is amazing what instincts we have.

12 July - emergency camp ~4900m

Another bottle of Dave's oxygen seemed to be helping more, as did eye drops for snow blindness and Fabian sometimes answered questions with a yes or no, but was still not what you could call conscious. All the paperwork headway of yesterday seemed in vain, lots of shouting in Urdu in the phone, nothing was clear, then sharp ears picked out the deep, slow thump-thump-thump of an Mi 17 chopper. Was it for us?

With tears of joy we realised it was, and in it came, far more formidable than we envisioned. The Pakistani pilot knew our site was less than ideal and with great skill be hovered the big beast on two wheels as we slid Fabien in, accompanied by a still only 80% Yannick (who should have a full checkup after his sickness and return to sea level).

My 50 hour nightmare was over with Fabian heading to Intensive Care in Skardu.

© Jamie McGuinness - Project-Himalaya.com - updated 14 Jul 2004