French climber Elisabeth Revol suffered from altitude-induced hallucination that made her take off her shoes and suffer frostbite while she was trapped on Pakistan's Killer Mountain. She was rescued on Sunday from Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth-highest peak, and is currently in France undergoing treatment.
Doctors are assessing if she will require amputation due to frostbite, but that hasn't dampened her spirit. During a chat with AFP, Revol said she would climb again if presented with an opportunity.
"I need this," she told the news agency.
She recalled how rescuers urged her to leave her fellow mountaineer, Tomek Mackiewicz, behind, and described it as "terrible and painful" thing to do. Mackiewicz, a father of three, is still missing, with some reports claiming there's little to no chance of surviving.
According to Revol, the first woman to scale the mountain in winter without oxygen or a sherpa. Mackiewicz had lost his eyesight by nightfall as he had developed eye inflammation. “At one point, he couldn’t breathe,” she told AFP. “He took off the protection he had in front of his mouth and he began to freeze. His nose became white and then his hands, his feet,” she recalled.
The duo spent the night in a crevasse, and it was clear Mackiewicz’s condition was worsening as he had blood streaming from his mouth. This is the ultimate stage of acute mountain sickness.
Responding to her messages for help, rescuers told her to descend to 6,000 metres and it was here she parted ways with Mackiewicz. She told him: “Listen, the helicopter will arrive late afternoon. I must go down, they’ll come to get you.”
When rescuers did not arrive, she had to spend yet another night in a crevasse, and she started hallucinating.
Revol said: “I had hallucinations during the night. I imagined that people were bringing me hot tea. A woman asked me if in return she could take my shoe. At that moment I automatically got up, took off my shoe and gave it to her. In the morning when I woke up I was only in my sock.”
Pretty soon, she heard helicopters but rescuers couldn’t land because of the wind. Not happy with the prospect of spending yet another night in the open, she made her way down and managed to reach one of the camps at around 3 am.
