Searching for a sparkle of light in situations like these, one finds that at least they bring people together. Emails are flying between continents by star climbers and regular people trying to aid in the search for Oscar.

Oscar Perez and Alvaro Novellón, during a previous expedition.

With ExWeb’s Spanish editor on vacation in Slovenia, we were thrilled when at request from Fernando, this morning Mara V. Larson (Chamonix) helped translate his story about the current situation on Latok.

It’s a tale about a rescue attempt in a frantic race against time; on an unclimbed and unfixed route – in a war zone. Here goes:

Desperate rescue in the Karakorum
Written by: Fernando J. Perez
Translated by: Mara V. Larson
12 August 2009

Image of Latok II, with the route that the two tried to open.

Pakistani Army Air Corps helicopters and mountain climbers of diverse nationalities are immersed at the moment in a desperate rescue in the mountain range of the Karakorum. The objective is nothing less than to rescue alive a climber from the wall of Latok, a massive peak of 7,125 meters in the heart of the Karakorum.

The Spanish mountain climber Oscar Perez, is at approximately 6,200 m of altitude with a broken leg and an arm immobilized after suffering an accident when he tried to scale it in alpine style with his companion Alvaro Novellón.

"They gave everything"

Alvaro (left) and Oscar (right) next to their cook with Latok I to the bottom, which they tried before Latok II.

The rescue has become a fight against the clock since Oscar already has spent six days trapped on the wall. In all this time he has had to survive wounded, without tent, with a small sleeping bag to sleep in, a gas canister for making water and some basic food. They gave everything in their attempt to open a new route in alpine style on Latok II.

The drama increases because the rescue marches on with the uncertainty of knowing if Oscar Perez remains alive, since he does not have means to communicate with the outside world.

After the accident, his companion attempted to assist him and when seeing that it was to be an impossible descent, left with him all the food that they took above and descended to request aid. A day and a half later arriving at the base camp, he raised the voice of alarm Saturday to his club, El Pe?a Guara de Huesca, which since then has been mobilized to aid. Also in coordination of support is Sebastián ?lbvaro, who by chance is traveling in the Karakorum.

Factors have aligned only in a single climber

Oscar Perez climbing on Latok III in 2006

The efforts to try to rescue the Spanish climber are two-fold. On the one hand, a group of alpinists intend to climb to where he is and assist in descending with him.

This option, on one hand most viable, has several disadvantages that would extend the rescue, since it is an unclimbed and unfixed route, which requires very experienced mountain climbers to undertake. The route Oscar and Alvaro tried to open in alpine style is within reach of very few , so this rescue effort will ascend slower while having to fix the route.

In addition, they must combine efforts between the experienced mountain climbers who are already in the zone of Latok, already acclimated, and with sufficient equipment. Thankfully, these factors have aligned although only in a single climber, the North American Fabricio Zangrilli, who although he just finished descending from an attempt near K2 has offered full support with these efforts.

Zangrilli is already in base camp, where a proper helipad has been made and today the ascent with Alvaro Novellón will begin. Novellón despite suffering slight frostbite had no doubts in returning up.

Ramon Portilla and Alvaro Corrochano enroute

Meanwhile, from Spain yesterday a team of five departed for Pakistan. Simón Elías, Jordi Corominas, Jordi Tosas, Jonathan Larra?aga and Dani Ascaso are some of the best Spanish alpinists of the present time, and all of them members of the Pe?a Guara and friends of Oscar and Alvaro.

The problem is that in the best of all cases (that is, that once they land in Islamabad they are directly transferred by helicopter to Latok) they would not arrive at base camp before morning, Thursday. There is also hope that today two other Spanish mountain climbers arrive at BC, who were in the area as well, Ramon Portilla and Alvaro Corrochano.

The heli option – return of Colonel Rashid Ullah Baig

The other option consists of removing Oscar Perez by helicopter from the ledge on which he is, at 6,200 meters. This option is very complicated as much by the technical aspects as in the bureaucratic ones, and it has occurred once before: the rescue of Tomaz Humar in Nanga Parbat in 2005.

On the technical side, it is necessary to consider the elevation as the helicopters fly over their height limits, so to control them is very difficult. In addition, it is impossible to look for a place to land, so it requires quite literally taking the mountain climber off the wall, or sending down a cable to him on which it is possible to be grasp hold, or if his wounds prevent this, to send down from the helicopter another mountain climber who hooks to him the cable and removes him from the mountain this way.

And although it seems incredible, this mission is not without precedent. Colonel Rashid Ullah Baig, then lieutenant, in 2005, astonished the world with his almost impossible rescue of Tomas Humar on Nanga Parbat. His heroic deed reached such dimensions that he was compensated with a position in the Pakistani Government.

Rescue attempt on an unclimbed and unfixed route – in a war zone

So it is logical that the Pe?a Guara team thought immediately about this pilot to save Oscar. But this is where they have run into the bureaucratic challenge. These helicopters are military and the Karakorum considered a war zone due to its proximity to Kashmir.

Therefore, all flight operations must be authorized by the Army. And an operation like this could be considered risky for such a government.

For example, the rescue of Humar could only be realized after the express authorization of the then president, Pervez Musharraf, after he succumbed to the international pressures by the obvious media dimension that reached the accident of Humar.

So the Pe?a Guara team coordinating the rescue has wasted no time before contacting the Exterior Ministry to try to manage this crisis at the highest level so that the Pakistani Government itself authorizes the rescue operation.

Race against time

In the middle of all of this accumulation of difficulties, time is not on their side. Without these approvals, all the process would undergo a new delay. In the case of the helicopters, the rescue team of mountain climbers, and the material to the base camp, because they could not fly; and in the case of the mountain climbers, because the ascent of the wall is enormously complicated.

Meanwhile, Oscar Perez awaits his rescue at 6,200 meters of altitude, alone, on a small ledge of an almost vertical wall in the middle of the Karakorum. Those who know him assure us that his greatest strength resides in his head, the tranquility and the calm in which he confronts the difficult moments. And these they are. More than anything