He is at base camp now waiting for the helicopter to take him from the mountain.
More:
Pakistan has listed 11 climbers missing and believed dead: three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway.
One of the rescued Dutchmen, Wilco Van Rooijen, blamed mistakes in preparation for the final ascent — not just the avalanche — for one of mountaineering's worst disasters.
Van Rooijen told The Associated Press on Monday that advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places, including in a treacherous gully known as "The Bottleneck," about 1,150 feet below the summit.
That caused hours of delays, so climbers only reached the summit just before nightfall. The column of ice fell as the fastest mountaineers descended.
Base camp has facilities like oxygen and drugs to help Confortola until the helicopter comes.
I think being crazy or having a death wish not to mention a giant ego is part of what drives people to do something as stupid as climbing the Karakorum or Himilayan mountains.
It's all about bragging rights. Of course the eleven who died on K2 no longer have that.
Nicholas Rice's blog is here. Because he spilled boiling water on his socks, Rice didn't go up the mountain with his fellow climbers; as a result of his mishap, he is alive today.
Another update: Are extreme mountaineers just simply out of their minds?
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