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Inaki Ochoa de Olza dies on Annapurna

Inaki Ochoa de Olza died on the south Face of Annapurna this morning. Locked for four days at 7400m, the Spanish mountaineer died due to brain damage and pulmonary edema.

Francesca Colesanti

May 2008

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Iñaki Ochoa de Olza died this morning on the South Face of Annapurna due to a heart attack.

navarra8000.com

Madrid, 23 mag. (Ap-APcom) - The extremely strong Spanish mountaineer Inaki Ochoa de Olza died this morning on the South Face of Annapurna, one of the 14 8000m peaks in the Himalaya. The news was broken by the Spanish newspaper Diario de Navarra which was reporting about the fate of the mountaineer, locked at 7400m due to bad weather.

Ochoa's conditions worsened in the final hours due to pulmonary edema, which resulted in his death at 8.45 this morning. Swissman Ueli Steck was by his side, after having arrived yesterday with medication. All attempts to save Ochoa proved futile.

40 year old Ochoa de Olza had turned back from his attempt of his 13th 8000m peak without oxygen due to frostbite, but after reaching camp IV he soon slipped into a state of semi-consciousness. Two mountaineers, Horia Colibasanu Rumania and Alexey Bolotov from Russia, had helped him down to this camp before descending to call for rescue.

Inaki Ochoa was born in Pamplona on 29 May 1967 and was about to celebrate his 41st birthday. He had climbed, exclusively without supplementary oxygen, 12 of the 14 8000m peaks, including a new route on Shisha Pangma. He climbed Kangchenjunga, his first 8000m giant, aged 22 and took part in circa 30 Himalayan expeditions, at times working as guide or high altitude cameraman.

Francesca Colesanti

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