Italian climber Marco Confortola was up Mount Dhaulagiri when the Himalayan range shook on April 25th. His second ascent of the more than 8,000-metre super-peak [he has scaled eight of the world’s tallest] this time was to deliver recyclable supply containers.
We talk to him back at home in Valfurva, in the Italian Alps.
Confortola has survived many such climbs, but this was his first earthquake.
“At first it wasn’t clear what was going on, then with the continuous tremor we realized it was an earthquake. Ten minutes later there was a strong shock and we understood the discharge of energy must have caused a disaster down in the valleys.”
Correspondent Daniela Castelli asked: “So you decided to leave the base camp. Walking up and down mountains is your job, but what spurred the decision here?”
“Helicopters were available at Mount Everest [some 370 kilometres away] to retrieve severely injured people, [but] we were well off, physically. Our descent [of Dhaulagiri] was very
