Kangchenjunga 2003
Spanish/Italian News

NEWSFLASH: Carlos is Alive !!!! Two reports

I can confirm that tonight Carlos with the support of sherpas that went to help him to come down reach finally BC. He has some finger of his hands frozen but now every thing is under control. On Saturday the helicopter will come to pick all the 5 climbers on the BC and they will fly directly to KATH. IDEL

5/22/2003  Safe at base camp: Carlos Pauner has called Mila, his wife, and Laura, his daughter, at around 6 in the afternoon, Spain time.  The descent has been very hard, with 2 bivouacs and a fall of more than 100 meters into a serac.  Finally his psychological and physical strength have prevailed and he has managed to see Base Camp.  With the little battery charge left in his headlamp, he made signals that were luckily seen from Base Camp.  Two Sherpas have left to meet him and have taken him to base, where he got walking by himself.  Now he is having treatment for incipient frostbite and is being hydrated after three days without drinking. Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

The other report of his disappearance is below...

05/21/2003  We can't do nothing but wait

Carlos Pauner and his teammates (Silvio Mondinelli, Mario Merelli and Kunter) reached the summit yesterday around 4,30 in the afternoon, Nepal time.  After a brief pause on the summit, they headed back to camp III, at 7,600 meters.  The weather was apparently getting worse.  Carlos slightly delayed although always having visual contact with his Italian teammates (they saw his headlamp in the dark and they shouted at him, and Carlos answered saying he was fine).  The three Italians made it to C3 at 7600m at 1 AM (Nepal time), in the dark of the night and with bad weather.  They shouted and searched Carlos' headlamp, but there was no contact with him.  They had not been able to fix a line in that zone, to make the descent safe and the terrain was rocky and steep, making this climb down very delicate.

During the night they left lamps in the exterior so that Carlos Pauner could find his orientation and find the tent in spite of the bad weather, in the middle of the night.  They also went out to shout several times during the night, trying to get an answer.  After spending the night at C3, at 9AM, with an adverse weather that made visibility impossible and with no news from Carlos Pauner they descended to Base Camp, where they arrived with grave frostbite.  At 7 PM on May 21st (Nepal time), the last contact with Base Camp was made, from where they sent us this information.  From that moment on there has been no news and we don't have any other data.

Our hopes and Prayers are with Carlos, he is a friend and a great mountain climber. EverestNews.com

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