July 6, 2011 – Canadian Climber Aids in Controversial Gasherbrum Rescue

Quebec based climber Louis Rousseau has assisted in the rescue of a Pakistani climbing porter suffering from a severe case of altitude sickness.  The porter’s condition prevented him from walking more than 20 steps and he was bleeding from his nose and mouth. Receiving news of the situation, Rousseau and José Tamayo immediately raced to up to offer assistance and they were soon followed by Mario Vielmo, Silvano Forgiarini, Gunther Unterberger, Alex Txikon, Juan Ramon Madariaga and MD Stefan Zechmann. The group managed to get the porter safely to base camp where he was stabilized and received further treatment.

What was disturbing about this particular rescue was the fact that many teams including the Japanese team that had hired the porter, were unwilling to help for fear of compromising their summit attempts.

Describing the situation, Rousseau says, “We sadly came to the realisation that no one else on the G1/G2 BC was going to participate to this rescue, for fear of compromising their expeditions. It was even said that some teams forbade their own Pakistani porters to help.”

More details here.