Ilalo, Ecuador: This is going to be amazing! An Ecuadoran who lost both his feet, is all set to become the first climber to reach the world’s toughest mountain, K2, with artificial limbs and without oxygen supplies.
According to media reports, Santiago Quintero got half of each foot cut off for frostbite after scaling Aconcagua in Argentina in 2002. But this tragic incident didn't stopped him.
“They told me I would never climb 5,000-metre mountains again,” the strong- willed 41-year-old Santiago told media.
“But no one can tell me how I am and what I am. Being what I want to be is my decision.”
He scaled Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,848 metres (29,029 feet), in 2013. But this journey of him landed him in the hospital in intensive care.
Now he aims to conquer K2 - the second-highest mountain at 8,611 metres which is considered most difficult to scale.
Earlier he has ascended K2, which is on the border between China and Pakistan. His journey was not completed as his party had to turn back when they capsized their chests in snow.
He further told media, 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 has artificial organs, with which he has already scaled seven of the 14 mountains in the world that are over 8,000 metres high.
He says after spending nine months in the hospital in Spain, where doctors performed the amputations. He then waited for five years to have prosthetic feet fitted.
In total 188 mountaineers have scaled K2.“They did it with their bodies fully intact,” said Quintero. “That’s quite different.”
He plans to start his hike up K2 on June 13 and finish on July 31.
“I am quite determined,” he told media, while resting during a training climb on the extinct Ilalo volcano in northern Ecuador.
He added “Without the mountains, I think I would rather be dead.”
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