PARIS (AP) — The French mountain climber who was rescued from a Himalayan peak where her climbing partner is presumed to have died was still recovering in a French hospital on Wednesday.
Elisabeth Revol has returned to France after she was rescued Sunday from Nanga Parbat mountain — the world’s ninth-highest peak at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet.) Revol and her climbing partner Tomasz Mackiewicz called for help Friday.
Frederic Champly, the doctor responsible for her treatment at the Sallanches hospital near the Mont Blanc massif, said Revol has serious “grade 3 or 4 frostbites.”
Revol was rescued by Polish climbers who were on a separate expedition and braved high winds and low nighttime temperatures to bring her down from Nanga Parba.
The rescue team was unable to reach Mackiewicz, from Poland, due to poor weather, and made the decision to leave him behind after Revol reported the poor condition he was in when she last saw him.
Revol said Mackiewicz had frostbitten hands and legs and face, no sense of time or space, was snow blind, and unable to move unassisted.
Speaking at a news conference at the hospital, fellow mountain climber Catherine Destivelle said she has been told Revol is in “good psychological condition.”
“I think she must be happy to be alive and to have survived,” Destivelle said.
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