Photo. Fredrik Ericsson. © Fredrik Ericsson.
This writes the mountaineer and Ericsson's friend David Schipper on Ericsson's blog Friday night (www.fredrikericsson.com). Schipper added that it would also be very dangerous to bring Ericsson down. It `s the first update on the blog since it was known that Swedish adventurer had fallen to his death from the Pakistan mountain.
Shipper wrote also: "The bottom of my world fell out. Facts and information are impossibly inaccurate at this altitude so I got started making my way through the grim channels to find out where the truth was. With the help of Field Touring Alpine and my friend and guide Fabrizio Zangrilli I was able to get most of the story straight."
The plan was to climb K2 and then ski down. He has also previously tried, but then returned after his companion was killed in a fall.
Our travel guide Travel Explorations was in contact with Ericsson in March previous year. He sendt us a Press Release 20th March 2009 where he wrote:
"K2 was first climbed in 1954 by the Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. Since then, The Savage Mountain – as it has come to be called due to the extraordinarily high number of deaths on the mountain – has been climbed on 10 different routes and only around 200 people have summited. So far no one has made a complete ski descent from the summit of K2. This means that we can become the first in the world to ski the mountain”.
The accident occurred after Ericsson and the expedition members Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Trey Cook began to climb from base camp 4 at 1:30 Friday night 6th August 2010, writes spokesperson Ralf Dujmovits on Kaltenbrunners blog Friday.
Since the weather was bad, the other six member of the expedition decided to remain at the base camp, but Ericsson, Kaltenbrunner and Cook started to climb since the weather forecast showed that it would be better during the day.
K2 is the second-highest mountain on Earth after Mount Everest. Elevation: 8,611 metres. According to Wikipedia, K2 is known as the Savage Mountain due to the difficulty of ascent and the 2nd highest fatality rate among the 'eight thousanders' for those who climb it. For every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying.
Stein Morten Lund, 7th August 2010
Additional information
Fredrik Ericsson`s website: www.fredrikericsson.com
As Fredrik Ericsson introduces himself based on information from his website:
He is a professional skier and mountaineer from Sweden that spends most of his time in Chamonix, France. He grew up in a town called Umeå in the northern part of Sweden with long winters and lots of snow. But it wasn´t until the age of 18 that he found out that skiing was his big passion. Fredrik worked as a ski instructor in Oppdal, Norway for two seasons before he left Scandinavia and spent winters in Queenstown, New Zealand and Fernie Canada. In the year of 2000 Fredrik came to Chamonix where he found the perfect playground for all his interests: skiing, climbing and mountain biking.
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner`s website: www.gerlinde-kaltenbrunner.at
Wikipedia about K2: K2 information
Friday 6th August 2010 the Swedish adventurer Fredrik "Fripp" Ericsson (35) died when he fell from K2 in the Himalayas. Fredrik Ericsson is a professional skier and mountaineer from Sweden, popularly called Fripp. His body rests at about 7000 meters, and now his parents have requested that it will be remained in the mountains he loved.
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