A badly frostbitten Italian climber hobbled down K2 early today , after spending four nights on the world's second-highest mountain following a climbing disaster that killed 11 others.

Marco Confortola, 37, was reached by an American climber and Pakistani high altitude porters late on Monday as he struggled alone high on the peak. The team took him to an altitude that would be safe for a helicopter to airlift him off the mountain but bad weather has so far prevented the helicopters from taking off.

Speaking by satellite phone Brigadier Mohammad Akram, vice president of Pakistan's Adventure Foundation siad: "He couldn't make it during the night as he was completely exhausted.

"His feet have become swollen and his boots are now so tight on him."

Times Archive, 1954: K2 conquered

The Italian climbers' success derives extra merit from the fact that misfortune dogged their footsteps

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The rescue of Mr Confortola came hours after two badly frostbitten Dutch climbers were airlifted from the 8,611 metre (28,240 foot) peak. One of the rescued men, Wilco van Rooijen, gave a harrowing account of seeing climbers freezing to death hanging upside down on ropes and others suffering from lack of oxygen.

Mr van Rooijen, speaking by telephone from a hospital, where he was being treated for frostbitten toes, blamed mistakes in the preparation for the final ascent as being partly responsible for the loss of life.

Among those who died in the worst tragedy on the mountain in 20 years was Gerard McDonnell, 34, described as one of Ireland’s most experienced climbers, who had already reached Everest’s peak in 2003. Pat Falvey, a Cork mountaineer and family friend, described his colleague as “one of the strongest and best upcoming young climbers” in Ireland.

Mr McDonnell, from Limerick, had worked as an engineer for an oil company in Alaska. In 2006 he was forced to abandon an attempt to climb K2 when he was hit by a rock. He had finally conquered the mountain only days before his death, becoming the first Irish person to reach the summit on Friday.

His brother JJ and girlfriend Annie Starky were preparing to fly to Pakistan today to meet Mr van Rooijen, the leader of his seven-person expedition.

Mr McDonnell’s family were said to be struggling to cope with the news that his body would probably never be recovered, Mr Falvey said. “They are holding up well and are very proud of Ger’s achievement and are still in total shock in relation to the fact that he may not be coming back,” he said. “At high altitude at over 8,000m, it is too dangerous to mount a rescue to have the bodies returned.”

Mr van Rooijen explained how several expeditions waited throughout last month for good weather to scale K2, considered far more treacherous than Everest. When the weather cleared on Friday about 24 people set off up the mountain, on the Pakistan and China border.

“Everything was going well to Camp 4 and then on the summit attempt everything went wrong,” he said. Advance climbers had laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,251ft (8,611m) peak, including a gully known as theBottleneck, one of the most treacherous sections.

“We were astonished,” Mr van Rooijen, 40, said. “We had to move them. That took, of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore.”

Those who went on reached the summit shortly before nightfall. As the fastest climbers began their descent back across the Bottleneck, the fixed lines were torn away by the fall of a huge serac – a column of ice formed by intersecting crevasses on a glacier. Others succumbed in the oxygen-starved air, stranded at an altitude known as the Death Zone.

Mr van Rooijen said that a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness. Despite suffering snow blindness, Mr van Rooijen continued to make his way along the treacherous route and encountered stranded climbers.

“There was a Korean guy hanging upside down. There was a second Korean guy who held him with a rope but he was also in shock and then a third guy was there also, and they were trying to survive. But I also had to survive,” he said.

He said that he was screaming instructions to people to work together, but they appeared consumed by self-preservation. “They were thinking of my gas, my rope, whatever,” he said. “ Everybody was fighting for himself and I still do not understand why everybody was leaving each other.

“People were running down but didn’t know where to go, so a lot of people were lost on the mountain on the wrong side, wrong route, and then you have a big problem.”

It was not clear whether these were the same three Koreans who died. Two other Koreans made it back to the base camp, which lies at about 16,400ft, an expedition organiser said.

Mr van Rooijen and his Dutch colleague, Cas van de Gevel, were taken from base camp by helicopter to a military hospital in Skardu.

Speaking by satellite phone to a fellow climber in Italy late on Monday, Mr Confortola told him: "Of course, of course, I'll keep going. Imagine if I gave up now," he told Agostino Da Polenza, head of the Ev-K2-CNR mountaineering group.

The climbers who died in the avalanche on Friday were three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis, a Serbian, the Irishman, a Norwegian and a Frenchman.

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