May 13, 2016
Ilaló
(Ecuador) (AFP) - An Ecuadoran who lost both his feet is aiming to
become the first climber to scale the world's toughest mountain, K2,
with artificial limbs and without oxygen supplies.
Santiago
Quintero had half of each foot amputated for frostbite after climbing
Aconcagua in Argentina in 2002. But that has not stopped him.
"They told me I would never climb 5,000-meter mountains again," the smiling 41-year-old told AFP.
"But no one can tell me how I am and what I am. Being what I want to be is my decision."
Quintero
scaled Mount Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,848 meters (29,029
feet), in 2013. The expedition landed him in the hospital in intensive
care.
Now he is aiming to conquer K2 -- the second-highest mountain at 8,611 meters, but considered technically the hardest to climb.
He
ascended K2, which is on the border between China and Pakistan, once
before but stopped short of the summit. His party had to turn back when
they sank up to their chests in snow.
He
says he caught frostbite on Aconcagua, the highest peak in the
Americas, because he could not afford a $100 pair of waterproof covers
for his boots.
He
spent nine months in the hospital in Spain, where doctors performed the
amputations, then a further five years waiting to have prosthetic feet
fitted.
With those artificial members, he has already scaled seven of the 14 mountains in the world that are over 8,000 meters high.
In total 188 mountaineers have scaled K2.
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