The Summit Page #7

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that Lino and Achille

used to reach the summit.

For 30 years,

I have been attacked,

accused, provoked, and slandered

all because I volunteered

my own life

in the service of my people

and my country.

Without Mahdi and I,

K2 would have remained a dream.

We worked together.

I found a walkie-talkie

under the Sherpa.

I spoke with someone.

I don't know who it was

who was listening.

I spoke.

I said,

"I don't speak English."

"I speak Tarzan English."

I said, "I am Marco.

I am at the serac."

"There is a problem."

"Somebody has to come up.

I am tired."

But then Ger,

he went back up a bit.

I didn't understand why.

I didn't know if he wanted

to pull down the Koreans still.

I spoke on the radio,

and then I started to descend.

All I could think about

was leaving, surviving.

I had to survive.

Called a friend.

Just asked her

if she'd come over

so I wouldn't have to be alone.

She came to the door,

and she grabbed me,

and she said,

"We are gonna will him

off that mountain."

Okay, you must bring him down.

Mr. Kim says

we must keep climbing higher

and find the Korean team.

He's alive,

but nobody's-

want to come with me.

But everybody say,

"No, it's still dangerous."

Then finally, I...

I start climb again.

He wearing a green down suit.

I knew that is Marco.

If I don't have oxygen,

I cannot bring him down

because I cannot carry him.

After ten minutes,

Marco is trying to move

and trying to talk with me.

Go ahead, Pasang.

I am here with the Korean team.

They said,

"We see Korean Sherpas"

"and Korean team."

"Now we are trying

to descend together."

Is there anyone else there?

There was one other climber,

but he was hit by ice and fell.

What was

the color of his down suit?

Red and black.

When they said,

then I think that could be Ger.

I don't know who is the person

rolling down.

Then I reach there,

and I saw two Korean body

is ten meters far

from two other Sherpas' body.

I know the rucksack

and boots and down suit.

Everybody wants to survive...

doesn't matter if you have

a child or... or a wife at home.

Yeah, there was

the last moment I saw Gerard

and these other Koreans,

but I don't know

what happened with them.

Why are... me surviving?

Yeah, it's... it's just a matter

of... of stupid...

yeah, be unlucky

on the wrong time

and the wrong place.

Wilco, our expedition leader,

is back up with the helicopter

because he's frozen his feet.

And there's a second helicopter

for Marco.

He froze his hands really badly,

so he can't use his hands

to get the ropes anymore.

Helicopter carries

the last survivor

of a doomed mission to climb

one of world's

most challenging mountains.

Italian Marco Confortola

was rescued from K2

nearly five days

after an avalanche

swept some climbers away

and stranded others.

And badly frostbitten

from trying to help

save others in the group.

Instinct, he says,

makes you want to do that.

Confortola says the expedition

was plagued by inexperience

and poor equipment.

He says some ropes and spikes

easily broke.

Different people

were saying different things.

There was a lot of confusion.

There was a lot of stories,

but the Marco story

became the story.

We were all prepared,

all alpine climbers.

We were people who knew

what we were doing,

but it was K2,

the most difficult of mountains.

This guy had had

a horrific experience up there.

He was in pretty bad shape,

both mentally and physically.

I said, "Look, I need to..."

"Find out for sure, you know,"

"what went down up here,

like, you know?"

"I have to go to Pakistan."

It was really frightening,

because we didn't know

what we were going in for.

And, I mean, I guess half of me

kind of still believed Ger

was alive,

and the other half

didn't believe it.

Following day,

we got to meet Wilco and Cas.

I'm sorry. I'm just hoping he's alive.

But he's saying he saw

Ger fall, and his story...

And in my heart, there's still hope.

- I know it's ridiculous.

- Yes, I understand.

- So he's-he is dead?

- Yes, for sure.

Absolutely, because that was

what Marco told us directly.

Wilco and Cas,

they were obviously nervous

because our brother

had died, you know,

and they were alive.

Why did we split up?

Why didn't we look

to each other?

The only explanation

is because we were too-

too long at high altitude.

Marco's account was,

he was sitting there with Ger,

and then there were three people

ahead of them.

And all of a sudden,

those people disappeared.

And so they took such a fright,

they decided,

"Let's just sit here

"and wait until daylight," right?

And then he says you came along,

but then... then...

No, no, no, that's not correct,

because we started together.

So you were all...

you bivouacked all together?

- Yeah.

- You never came along later?

No.

One thing that always took

hold in my head

and still does to this day

was...

how so many people

on the mountain

could have different stories

about the same event.

And then we come back

in the night,

and then after-

and then the next morning,

everything happens.

They had their information

about the little bit

Wilco could remember

and the little bit

Cas could remember

and what they heard

Marco could remember.

And they drew a map for us,

you know, the terrain

where they thought

things occurred.

Marco's a very emotional boy.

He's...

Yes, and he's totally...

He was... at the end of...

he was so tired.

They didn't know any more.

Cas and Wilco had been airlifted

off the mountain.

There was no debriefing

with the remainder of the team,

and they actually didn't know.

He was just getting

more and more confused.

We needed more.

You know what I mean?

It wasn't enough.

For some reason, we felt

we needed to talk to Pemba.

Marco had left

by the time we got there,

but Pemba

and the rest of the Norit team

were hiking out,

and that takes two days.

Also, mentally,

psychologically,

Marco was almost mad.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Because when I trying

to give oxygen,

he's angry with me.

"Why you came here

to pick up me?"

He is always talking

negative, negative,

always crying.

And he's saying,

"You f***ing guys,"

"why you come here

to pick up me?"

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- That is...

- Not very understanding.

- We say a head case.

- Yeah.

By the time Pemba

got to Islamabad,

Marco was gone,

and all the major news people

left too.

It never occurred to them

that maybe he'd have something

to say.

What happened on K2,

the story of the rescue,

is that I tried

for three or four hours

to give help to those boys.

It's something that just came

from my heart.

It was after that

that I paid the consequences.

What Marco did on the mountain...

nobody can take that

away from him.

He was a hero on the mountain.

I mean, the family always-

to this day,

the family have said,

"Marco did what he could do."

"He was a hero."

But the stories

were changing from Marco

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