Dhaulagiri 2007: More details on the death of SERGIO DELLA LONGA

Sadly my message today is not nice at all, I will try to do a modest homage to my teammate SERGIO DELLA LONGA, who sadly died last April 30 around 14.00 h. in Nepal just 10 meters away from the sumit of Dhaulagiri.

I had the pleasure of meeting him in the winter of 2006 when we were already talking about Dhaulagiri, he and his wife, but elite climbers, impressed me with their resum�, great walls in Yosemite, all the routes in Nose, the mescalito, etc., Tower Hill, Eiger, the great Jorasses, all that is climbable in the French Dolomites and the Alps as well as the Italians and in Switzerland, and how treacherous fate can be to do this.

When we arrived to Base Camp in Dhaulagiri, just a month before, on March 30, and we were stunned when we saw the South Wall, the Eiger of the Himalayas, we never could imagine that that Mountain of such captivating beauty, which looked so elegant and pretty in its route, its vertical and white ridge, never, never ever, we could imagine the drama that would develop in the meters close to its summit, that hosts so many lives now (4). Young people, strong, sportive, healthy, all with the illusion of reaching the summit.

Nine people left for the summit on the early morning of the 29 to the 30 of April, one turned around at 7,600m and the remaining 8 continued, tired, not exhausted but tired, because the night on camp 3 was hard, strong winds and the altitude hit too. Around 13.00 h. they started to get to the summit and around 14.00 when Sergio Della Longa and his wife Rosa were finishing the corridor they were climbing and close to exit from it, fate made Sergio lose his balance with so much bad luck that his piolet did not stop him and he went down to hit the only rock nearby, because the corridor is all snow and ice, Sergio died suddenly before his wife�s eyes.

The drama that began to develop was terrible, because they were climbing since 5.00 in the morning, all of those who were tiredly coming down from the summit had to try to move Rosa, who between cries, tears and a terrible commotion, said she would not leave, that he wanted to stay with her partner, her husband� Even now I can�t help the tears when I remember the image of Rosa, exhaust and half alive when she was brought back to Base Camp.

The teammates that brought her down, still in commotion, back in Camp 3, Mario Merelli and Mario Panzeri who started to climb around midnight on the night of the 30^th, had to bring her down by the fixed lines, because Rosa, who had all her fingers black and her hands with frostbite, the rest of the teammates with some black fingers too, couldn�t help her anymore.

The drama continued, they had to patronize her like a little girl to stop crying and to get to work, because she fell once and again over the vertical ice wall that leads from camp 3 to camp 2.

We already knew the news in base camp, I was going to climb on May 3 with a group from Pamplona, I had climbed up to camp 3 on the 29^th with the two Marios and I decided to climb back down alone and attempt the summit later, because my head was about to explode, and those moments waiting at base, that can never be compared to what the others were suffering, were terrible.

When she arrived by night to base camp they began to take care of her with water, betadine, heparine, antibiotics and aspirins. Right now Rosa is in the hospital in Katmandu with Merelli who is in charge of taking care of her all the time and between us all we try to feed her, we help her, but there is a lot still left for her to recover physically and mentally.

It was a hard hit for all of us, to unmount base camp with tears, to remember that eight of us came and only seven are leaving, none of us has even mentioned that we wanted to reach the summit, we have left all our tents up there so that the other climbers still there can use them, because we had to save Rosa no matter what, the material was secondary.

I have always heard about deaths in the mountain and I had seen that coldly, distantly, but I would never have imagined that it was that hard, a simple slip, a young person, strong, prepared� I can�t be admitted or forgotten.

Thanks friends for the messages of support, we were all saying yesterday that we have to change our lives, to buy some land and raise chickens, go to the beach, be with our family more time and avoid so much risks, but the truth is that it was fate which through a beautiful mountain had to steal us the life of a friend and a teammate, the mountain once more, where his wife has decided that he wanted to stay to rest.

DHAULAGIRI EXPEDITION: LINA QUESADA�S TEAMMATE SERGIO DELLA LONGA DIED, ON THE FINAL ASSAULT TO THE SUMMIT, LAST SUNDAY

The Sevillan and her teammates have given up the summit, they picked up their base camp and start to return

Late last night, May 1^st, the following information was posted on one of Lina Quesada�s teammate web site, Mario Marelli, the main information source since their departure last March 21^st:

�Hard to write� Hard to talk to the phone over so many kilometers of distance about something tragic like what has happened on Sunday to Sergio Dalla Longa, part of the Expedition during the ascent to Dhaulagiri� Maybe some of you have had news in the regional news show or in any other Internet site.

Hard to write about that also.

Yesterday, a very brief message from Mario, few words that leave you in awe. �Sergio has died, a short distance from the summit, a fixed point has jumped. Now I am at base camp�. Things like that leave everybody in a state of desperation and a deep sensation of impotence. That�s why nothing has to be written. What can you say?

I have not asked for anything, because everybody ask how it happened, where, when, they get lost just by asking why and there is no answer for that� �Hug tight you all�. And all that can be answered, and we hug you from here. Patrizia.�

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

DHAULAGIRI EXPEDITION: LINA QUESADA�S TEAMMATE SERGIO DELLA LONGA DIED, ON THE FINAL ASSAULT TO THE SUMMIT, LAST SUNDAY The Sevillan and her teammates have given up the summit, they picked up their base camp and start to return May 2, 2007

Late last night, May 1^st, the following information was posted on one of Lina Quesada�s teammate web site, Mario Marelli, the main information source since their departure last March 21^st: �Hard to write� Hard to talk to the phone over so many kilometers of distance about something tragic like what has happened on Sunday to Sergio Dalla Longa, part of the Expedition during the ascent to Dhaulagiri� Maybe some of you have had news in the regional news show or in any other Internet site. Hard to write about that also. Yesterday, a very brief message from Mario, few words that leave you in awe. �Sergio has died, a short distance from the summit, a fixed point has jumped. Now I am at base camp�. Things like that leave everybody in a state of desperation and a deep sensation of impotence. That�s why nothing has to be written. What can you say?

Mario called this morning. A few words loaded with sadness. �We are unmounting base camp. The helicopter has left from Katmandu and is now in Pokhara. If the weather is good it will pick us up by the afternoon, if not early tomorrow morning� We were so fine, there was a funny atmosphere in the group, we played cards� We hadn�t lost the summit, but one more important thing, a friend, a great friend. I have not asked for anything, because everybody ask how it happened, where, when, they get lost just by asking why and there is no answer for that� �Hug tight you all�. And all that can be answered, and we hug you from here. Patrizia.�

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

DHAULAGIRI EXPEDITION: LINA QUESADA�S TEAMMATE SERGIO DELLA LONGA DIED, ON THE FINAL ASSAULT TO THE SUMMIT, LAST SUNDAY

The Sevillan and her teammates have given up the summit, they picked up their base camp and start to return

Late last night, May 1^st, the following information was posted on one of Lina Quesada�s teammate web site, Mario Marelli, the main information source since their departure last March 21^st:

As per the report from Liaison officer, the following five members of "Kazakhstan-Russia 2007 Expedition" team successfully climbed Mt. Dhaulagiri (8167 meters) from the north east ridge on the following dates.

1 May 2007
     1. Mr. Sergey Samoilov (49 yrs), Kazakhstan
     2. Mrs. Svetlana Sharipova (37 yrs), Kazakhstan
     3. Mr. Yevgeniy Shutov (26 yrs), Kazakhstan
     4. Mr. Sinev Dmitry (34 yrs), Russian

The above mentioned expedition team comprising of 9 members was permitted to climb 8167m. high Mt. Dhaulagiri from North-east Ridge for the period of 75 days from 11 April, 2007 under the leadership of Mr. Denis Urubko of Kazakhstan. The handling agency of the expedition team is Royal High Mountain Trek Nepal Pvt. Ltd. Kathmandu, Nepal.

Sadly success of summits came a after Nepalese government confirmed that an Italian climber (Sergio Dalla Longa ) fell to his death on the same mountain just a two hundred metre short of the summit.