Fredrik 'Frippe' Ericsson's ambition to ski the three highest peaks in the World came to an end on the 6th August when he was killed in a fall from the infamous Bottleneck on K2.
With Americans Trey Cook and Fabrizio Zangrilli, Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, four Polish climbers and a Russian, Ericsson had climbed the South South East Spur (aka Cesen or sometimes Basque Route) to Camp 4 on the Shoulder.
Karl Gabl, the eminent Austrian meteorologist, had predicted a cloudy night on the 5th-6th but a clear following day, with moderate wind.
According to Kaltenbrunner, the slopes above the Shoulder looked rather icy, so the group hoped to avoid having to break trail through deep snow, a situation that has defeated many previous attempts.
However, at the proposed departure time in the middle of the night, it was still windy and visibility poor, so only Cook, Ericsson (carrying his skis) and Kaltenbrunner tried for the summit.
Cook turned back just before the Bottleneck, the steep constriction between rocks on the left and a serac barrier above, which gives access to the summit slopes.
The other pair continued unroped and at c8,200m Kaltenbrunner saw Ericsson fall past her. She immediately descended but only found one of his skis.
The Russian Yuri Ermachek set off down the Cesen Spur from the Shoulder, and when around 400m from Camp III at c7,200m, spotted Ericsson's lifeless body on the slopes of the South Face. He'd fallen 1,000m.
Crossing these slopes was deemed extremely dangerous due to avalanche conditions and ice fall from above, so after consultation with Ericsson's father back in Sweden, who did not want the climbers to take any extra risk, it was decided not to recover the body.
Ericsson is the second of two great Swedish extreme skiers to die on 8,000m peaks: the well-known Tomas Olsson was killed in 2006 trying to ski the Great Couloir on the North Face of Everest.
A well-liked mountaineer living in Chamonix, Ericsson had already skied from the top of Pik Communism (7,495m), Gasherbrum II (8,035m) and the Central Summit of Xixabangma (8,013m). He'd also skied from 8,000m on Dhaulagiri and 7,000m on Kangchenjunga.
Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner had every incentive to go for the summit. This was her fourth trip to K2 and if successful, she would have become only the third female claiming to have summited all 14 of the world's 8,000m peak [the claim by the Korean Oh Eun-sun still appears to be disputed in some quarters].
Of far greater significance has been her climbing style, and summiting K2 would have made her the first women to climb all the 8,000ers without supplementary oxygen [Everest from the north was achieved this spring]. Her first was Cho Oyu in 1998.
Thirty-nine years old Kaltenbrunner has a great mentor. She is married to Ralf Dujmovits, nine years her senior and a highly experienced and well-travelled guide who was the first German to climb all 14 8,000ers. He summited K2 in 1994 and for the last 20 years has been director of the well-known German guiding company Amical Alpin.
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