Famous Italian mountaineer Michele Fait died while he was skiing down from K2 with climbing mate Fredrik Ericsson
Image of Italian Michele Fait in Skardu about three weeks ago, courtesy of Fredrik Ericssons website
K2, Skardu: Famous Italian mountaineer Michele Fait died while skiing down from K2 with climbing mate Fredrik Ericsson.
Ericsson and Fait had originally hoped to acclimatize on Laila Peak but went straight for K2 after they were denied trekking permit for Laila. They reached K2 base camp two weeks ago, and began preparing for the upcoming climb and ski-descent.
Last week, they skied 900 meters from Camp 1 after spending a night at 6,000 meters. “The snow was better than we had expected, cold and just a little windpacked… I had a big smile on my face, cause even if only a third of the mountain, we were skiing on K2,” Ericsson reported then.
The climbers set up C2 in a second climb this week. They were skiing back to BC yesterday when Michele suddenly plummeted.
Fredrik and FTA’s leader Fabrizio Zangrilli reportedly reached Michele after only 20 minutes, but could only confirm death. Michele was buried on the mountain this morning by a team of 9 climbers, including fellow ski-mountaineer Swedish Fredrik Ericsson. Courtesy of (Jang, Dawn, Ericson Web site, K2 Mountaineering News)
