Two mountaineers completed the first-ever ascent of the east face of a notoriously treacherous peak in Nepal last week but only one returned. Slovak mountaineer Ondrej Huserka, 34, died Thursday after falling into a crevasse while descending the 23,734-foot Langtang Lirung peak, CBS News reports. Marek Holecek, his Czech climbing partner, said Huserka "hit an angled surface after an eight-meter drop, then continued down a labyrinth into the depths of the glacier." In a Facebook post, Holecek said he rappelled down into the narrow, icy space to find Huserka and realized, to his horror, that his climbing partner was "wedged head down, with one arm trapped."
Holecek said it took around two hours for him to free Huserka from the ice. "A broken spine and swollen eyelids I didn't want to see spelled out the bad news… He couldn't feel his legs, and his arms were paralyzed. His answers and awareness were totally confused," he wrote. "His star was fading as he lay in my arms… it lasted hours."
- "How I got out of that hellhole and across the wild glacier the next day doesn't matter... I'm here, and the one above who gave me this chance wanted me to be able to tell this story," Holecek wrote. "In exchange, I'm burdened with the pain and images that I'll carry to my last breath. I'm so sorry for Ondra, such a wonderful guy, a skilled climber, and a constant smile. Thoughts of self-blame haunt me—why him and not me? This pain is mine to bear, and it's one I can only share forward."
- Huserka was a member of the Slovak national mountaineering team. "Humble and great friend, top mountaineer, it is not an exaggeration to say world-class, gone prematurely," Slovak climbers association SHS James said in a Facebook post. "Let's keep his memory from the times when he spreads his positivity and always present smile."
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