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| Sharon | Untitled Comment | |
Voted 10/10 | Amazing story! I had never heard it before. Thank you for providing the reference for further reading....has it ever been published in an English translation? | |
| Posted Sep 23, 2003 10:18 pm | ||
| gordonye | Untitled Comment | |
Hasn't voted | 29.60, 102.10 got it from highalpex.com | |
| Posted Oct 8, 2002 5:16 pm | ||
| Johan Heersink | Untitled Comment | |
Voted 5/10 | Apart from the six succesfull expeditons to this great peak the author mentions, there also have been a few that were less fortunate, (One can also raise the question how "succesfull" the summiting teams were, given the huge death toll that was suffered). A Japanese attempt in the eighties led to one of the most gruelling ordeals ever to be suffered in mountaineering history. The expedition suffered setbacks from the beginning, and it was only near the end of their period, that they finally managed to get in position for a summit bid. Being stretched to the limit, only two man embarked on the final attempt, Matsuda and Sugawara. Things started to go wrong, when they took much longer than was anticipated, but finally a radio message came through: They were only 50 meters below the summit but had decided to give up, because they were totally out of food and drink and badly exhausted and dehydrated. It seems that was it as the radio went dead forever. The team not being in shape to mount a rescue operation got up one more time to camp two putting a wreath there and a message saying, "we will never forget you Matsuda and Sugawara" However Matsuda and Sugawara were not yet dead, the were staggering and stumbling down the treacherous slopes, their speed being snailish. But upon reaching a well provided lower camp, they were able to replenish themselves somewhat and sleep for 24 hours. After continuing their descent things did not get any better, constantly losing their way and losing important item after important item, like handshoes, axes and so on. Matsuda even lost one of his boots, replacing it with the case of his photo camera. Day after day went by and when after almost a week Sugawara announced to Matsuda that he was going to rest for a while, that was the last anyone ever saw or heard of him. It remains a mysterie what happened to him, whether he fell, froze, just gave up or commited suicide. Matsuda, now alone, badly frozen at both hands and feet, kept struggling downwards, and in his very bad condition even managed to get safely down a vertical absail above base camp. Great however was his dissapointment when the advanced base camp was completely empty. But at least there was some food left. Trying to eat something however, he collapsed in agony: Several ulcers had pierced his stomach and for the rest of the time he had to settle for just some gulps of water. Struggling further down into the deserted valley, he finally found the stone shelter the expedition had used on the way in and here he collapsed, finding this place also deserted and without food. No more able to go on, on the first morning, he could still crawl to a nearby stream to have a soothing drink of water, but when he tried so the next morning, his power gave out, and he lay down to die, halfway to the stream. Only hours after Matsuda gave up, he was found by a local herb gatherer who was convinced it was a corpse he was finding, judging the stench of decay that hung around. So, great was his surprise that the "corpse" was still breathing and had a heart pulse. Chances of saving the starving man with rotting hands and feet seemed slim. Within some hours help was organized, and incredibly Matsuda survived the rough transport, strapped on a horseback and arrived in the hospital, just weighing 39 kilogram! Nearly 2 pounds of maggots were removed here by the doctors from his decaying limbs. But Matsuda survived and his ulcers healed after treatment, it was however impossible to save anything from his hands or feet. Maybe the most incredible about the whole story is the comment of the man himself when he was recovering: "I want to go on climbing, I don't think now I will be able again to ascent the Himalayan giants, but I have set climbing the 50 highest peaks of Japan as my new goal"!!!!! Luckily our sport does not produce to many stories like this! Unfortunatly however most of us are neither blessed with Matsuda's mental resistance, nor his physical endurance. For those interested in the whole story: It is from Zhou Zheng's "Footprints on the Peaks", Beijing, 1995 | |
| Posted Sep 22, 2003 12:12 pm | ||
| Sharon | Untitled Comment | |
Voted 10/10 | Amazing story! I had never heard it before. Thank you for providing the reference for further reading....has it ever been published in an English translation? | |
| Posted Sep 23, 2003 10:18 pm | ||
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