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Details of Ericsson's death emerge
Wednesday August 11, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
It seems the Swedish extreme skier was just short of the summit of K2 when he slipped and fell. He was trying to be the first person to ski from the top to base camp. A memorial service has been held by fellow climbers near base camp.
The tragedy happened early on Friday morning as Fredrik Ericsson was making a final summit push.
He was near an area called the bottleneck when he slipped and fell as he was preparing to fix a rope.
He was the lead climber at the time.
He fell over 1,000m to his death.
It is not clear why he slipped but the recent warm weather had led to many avalanches and a large number of rock falls.
One report said the weather changed with poor visibility and high winds and that it was much worse than the forecast had suggested.
His fall was not vertical, but down a face of about 65 degrees.
His body is still on the mountain and his parents have reportedly requested that it be left where it is, in the mountains he loved.
Any retrieval would be extremely dangerous.
We have been following the expedition closely on PlanetSKI and reported on the tragedy when we heard about it on Friday.
For further details of the accident see this account on the expedition web site.
The team ascends K2His American climbing partner, Trey Cook, who has been blogging on the expedition and sending details to PlanetSKI had already turned round and Ericsson was with the re-known Austrian cimber, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner.
Cook turned round at the Bottleneck.
After the fall the Austrian team confirmed that an accident had happened and that she was making her way down the mountain.
She was aided by other climbers who were at other camps on the mountain.
All are now making their way down and hope to be in base camp later this weekend.
This account of the accident has just been posted by the husband of Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, Ralf Dujmovits.
He is at base camp and was told the details by his wifeon a satellite phone.
He has spoken to Ericsson's family before posting the details in the public domain.
"Last night at 1.30am, Fredrik, his friend Trey and Gerlinde left Camp IV on the shoulder of K2.
As the weather had been pretty bad since 11pm, the other six climbers decided not to go for the summit and stayed in their tents. They decided to stay behind due to the strong winds and poor visibility. However, as Charly Gabl from Innsbruck had told us that the weather would improve during the night, Gerlinde, Fredrik and Trey stuck with their decision to push for the summit.
When at 7am they had reached the bottleneck, Gerlinde told me over the radio that only Fredrik and herself were continuing towards the summit in poor visibility and extremely cold winds.
Trey had turned back. An hour later, at about 8.10am, I received another call from Gerlinde and she sounded shocked.
She told me that Fredrik had taken a fall and flew past her. She said she was on her way down to look for him. Shortly afterwards she called me again saying that the only thing she could find was one of Fredrik's skis he had carried. It seemed as if Fredrik had fallen towards the flank on the right side of the ascent route.
Due to the poor visibility it was almost impossible to see more.
During further conversations, Gerlinde told me that Fredrik had been leading without a rope, and that it was very likely that he had tried to put in an anchor on a rock on the side of the bottleneck, slipped and was unable to hold his fall."
For more information from Kaltenbrunner see here.
TRIBUTES COMING IN
Fredrik Ericsson, 14th March 1975 - 6th August 2010The news has sent shock waves through the extreme skiing and climbing community.
Fredrik Ericsson, know affectionately as Frippe, was a well-known and highly respected figure.
Both Ericsson and Cook had made Chamonix their homes and news flashed round town according to a PlanetSKI rader we have spoken to.
"At first people didn't believe it but slowly t became clear that he had died. Many of us have been following the expedition via the internet and his blog and we are truly shocked and saddened," he said.
See this related story here for a tribute to the man and his life from the PlanetSKI content editor James Cove.
Elsewhere on the internet there are other tributes.
"My sentiment was the same as everyone else's. Frippe always had a tremendously positive attitude and he brought with him a positive outlook wherever he went," says the climber, David Schipper. He attempted to climb K2 in 2007 and has spoken to Ericsson's team by satellite phone
"Now, the only thing left for us to do is say goodbye to an amazing person. Fredrik Ericsson was not only one of the strongest climbers here at base camp, he was also one of the most popular climbers. Like nobody else, he was always in a good mood, showed a lot of optimism and had infected us with his love for the mountains and extreme skiing. Dear Fredrik, you were a fine person and we will all remember you very fondly. We are sending our condolence to your parents, your relatives and your friends."
Ralf Dujmovits from K2 Base Camp, husband of Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner.
NEWS UPDATE, August 11th - A memorial serive has been held for Fredrik near base camp. For more details see here.
If you knew Fredrik, have been following the expedition or just want to pay tribute to a remarkable man then please send us your comment and we will post it.PlanetSKI reserves the right to edit any comments. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below.
Ericsson was clearly a very remarkable skier. The fact that he was attempting to be the first person to ski from the summit down to base camp on K2 demonstrates the shear determination and ability of the man.
K2 is probably one of the hardest, if not the hardest of all the 8000m peaks to climb. It has high avalanche danger, very harsh weather conditions and difficult climbing pitches. It is considered by many to be “the mountain” to scale. For these reasons, combined with the lack of oxygen above 8000m, he was attempting to ski and climb at the very edge of human possibility.
Adrian , Surrey
Bad weather, without a rope, planning to ski down from the summit. Yikes, I wouldn't take those odds on K2, no matter how good I was. It's a shame. R.I.P. Fredrik.
Robert Gonzalez, NYC, NY USA
Look I don't want to sound like an armchair critic but the odds on him skiing down K2, let alone the other peaks were
not good. So many of these extreme skiers ultimately die as they push the envelope too far. They may well die doing what they love etc.... but at the end of the day they are dead and their family and friends suffer. There I said it from the comfort of a sofa. I just find it a waste of a life. Sorry. RIP.
Jeff Sparks, UK
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