Michele Cucchi and Paolo Petrignani, with some Pakistani collaborators, fifteen days ago were in K2 CB to document the environmental state of the glacier. They had gone up to the Advanced basecamp in the days after the big avalanche that had swept away the slope over camp 3, jumping beyond the Black Pyramid, reaching the Godwin Austin glacier.
There Cucchi found some oxygen bottles and pieces of tents from the upper camps, but also, under a thin ice layer, a corpse wearing a boot, which was the only recognizable thing. Michele recovered the remains and carried the alpinist to Gilkey Memorial, where the victims of K2 are buried since 1953.
The only way to give a name to the corpse is the boot in the picture: it is a Millet, size 8. It suggests that the accident is quite recent.
We publish this picture to help to find the alpinist identity. If someone recognises the boot or has some doubts about it or needs some more information from Michele Cucchi, please write to Montagna.TV.
