Ericsson perishes on K2
Friday August 6, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The news was reported on the respected web site, Everest news, and quickly relayed on many other climbing and mainstream news web sites. 

There is still no official confirmation on the web site of the expedition, but the tragedy has been confirmed by several sources.

It appears the weather changed suddenly and Ericsson fell to his death near the summit.

All the other climbers attempting to scale K2 have survived.

He was climbing with the re-known Austrian woman, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, and it is being reported from the Austrian camp that she is now making her way down and that a serious accident has occured on the mountain.

The Austrian News Agency, APA, reports comments from her husband, Ralf Dujmovits, who is at K2 and came down earlier.

"A sad accident unfortunately occurred early this morning during the climb up to the K2 summit. Gerlinde was able to return to Camp IV on the shoulder of K2, and she is now on her way down."

According to The Austrian Times, Karl Gabl, from the Austrian Centre for Meteorology and Geodynamics’ (ZAMG), announced that Kaltenbrunner’s fellow climber, Fredrik Ericsson, was killed "after he fell around 1,000 metres off a cliff."

Gabl provided the team with up-to-the-minute weather information on their expedition.

It has been unseasonably warm on K2 in recent days and this has led to a greater danger of avalanches. There have also been many rocks falls, large and small, as the ice that bonds the rocks together has melted.

Another group led by the Austrian climber, Christian Stangl, also abandoned their attempt on K2.

"Snow is falling and avalanches keep coming down. We were lucky not to be hit by one of the many falling rocks on our way up. Now we have stopped our attempt and are returning to base camp," he said via a satellite phone.

31-year old Ericsson tried to scale the mountain last year, but his climbing partner Michele Fait fell to his death in that attempt. 

We covered the expedition at the time and Ericsson sent us regular updates at PlanetSKI.

Here is Ericsson's tribute to his friend and detals of the tragdey last year which gives an insight into the man and what made him tick.

K2 is one of the most dangerous and difficult mountains to climb.  Only 300 people have made it to the top.

It was part of his goal to try to climb and then ski down the 3 highest mountains in the world.

We reported on it in an earlier article.

Both Ericsson and his climbing partner,Trey Cook, have been keeping us up to date with progress.

We will bring you more information when we get it.

For the moment our wishes and deepest sympathy go out to his family and friends.

See this obituary written by our content editor, James Cove, who met him in Chamonix.

K2

News Update - Here is another report from a respected web site.

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