What happened to Pete Schoening?

What happened to Pete Schoening?

Pete Schoening, who became a mountaineering legend after saving a rope team of six men by single-handedly holding their weight on the sheer slope of K2, the world’s second-highest peak, died Wednesday at his home in Kenmore, Wash. He was 77. The cause was bone cancer, his wife, Mell, said.

What is Pete Schoening famous for?

Peter Kittilsby Schoening (July 30, 1927 – September 22, 2004) was an American mountaineer. Schoening was one of two Americans to first successfully climb the Pakistani peak Gasherbrum I in 1958, and was one of the first to summit Mount Vinson in Antarctica in 1966.

Did Eddie Bauer climb K2?

In 2011, he and two Sherpa teammates became the first to summit three 8000ers in only three weeks. With this K2 summit, he becomes only the fourth American to climb both Everest and K2 without supplemental oxygen.

Who was the greatest mountain climber?

The Italian alpinist Reinhold Messner, widely regarded as one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, holds more than one superlative record on Mount Everest.

What happened Bruce Herrod?

Moments later, Bruce Herrod began his descent, alone in fading light down the treacherous, snow and ice-covered south ridge. Herrod vanished, becoming the 11th climber to die on Everest in May.

Why did Pete Schoening join Fischer’s Mountain Madness group?

Pete joined Fischer’s team, not because he needed a guide, but because he didn’t want to have to wait years for his permit to come through. Nobody on Hall’s team has remotely the same mountaineering abilities as Pete Schoening. Still, the team is fairly competent compared with other teams at Base Camp.

When was the last time someone died climbing Everest?

More than 300 people have died attempting to reach the summit. The last years without known deaths on the mountain were 1977, a year in which only two people reached the summit, and 2020, when permits were suspended by Nepal because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When did Pete Schoening do the belay on K2?

There are thousands of famous climbs, but maybe only one truly famous belay: Pete Schoening’s on the American K2 expedition in 1953. The eight-man American team had established Camp VIII 25,200 feet on K2’s Abruzzi Ridge, in position to set up one more camp to put two climbers in position to summit, when Art Gilkey developed thrombophlebitis.

Why was Pete Schoening on the rope team?

Schoening was on a six-man rope team in 1953 desperately trying to get team member Art Gilkey down the mountain. The American party had been pinned down by a 10-day storm. Gilkey was struck by thrombophlebitis, an altitude-induced blood clot. He could no longer walk.

How did Pete Schoening hold on to Gilkey?

With the rope belayed around his hip, Schoening held on to a wooden ice ax jammed behind a rock. Schoening stopped the slide of the five climbers and somehow held on to Gilkey at the same time. That moment, on Aug. 10, 1953, would be known thereafter as The Belay.

Who was with Pete Schoening when he died?

Expedition leader Nick Clinch also was with Schoening at his death. Schoening led the American team that joined Soviet climbers in 1974 for ascents in the Pamirs, a range whose summits reach 24,000 feet. Gary Ulin of Bremerton lost his life in an avalanche.