Feeling good
According to T. Jeršovas, on Friday morning he spoke on the phone with S. Damulevičius.
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“He feels good, there was an initial examination yesterday, he was discharged from the hospital. His face is somewhat sunburned, but that is normal. They also checked his lungs, but if something had been wrong, they definitely would have kept him in the hospital,” T. Jeršovas explained to 15min.
When asked about when S. Damulevičius should return to Lithuania, T. Jeršovas said that his return ticket is supposedly for about a week later, but in his opinion, he might come back earlier.
He feels good, there was an initial examination yesterday.
According to T. Jeršovas, S. Damulevičius is now in Kathmandu – the capital of Nepal.
On Friday, S. Damulevičius himself posted the first message. He shared a photo of himself from Kathmandu on Facebook and wrote “Thank you.”
False information spread
False information about S. Damulevičius’s landing had spread online in English. This happened when the travel agency “SummitClimb,” which organizes trips to Everest, shared on social media that their guide and client Damulevičius was found in serious condition at the fourth camp.
“Our last client and Sherpa were descending from the mountain, near the trail in a tent they noticed a sick climber. They started to check what was going on and saw that he was without water, oxygen, food. They entered the tent, gave food, water, oxygen. It seemed the climber was almost dead, so they tried to help him,” the agency wrote.
However, according to T. Jeršovas, S. Damulevičius is an experienced climber and had medication for altitude sickness. But while descending, he felt unwell.
“I contacted the mountain doctor Kaste, who is perhaps the most experienced, I passed Saulius’s questions to her, and I passed the answers to Saulius,” explained T. Jeršovas.
They gave him oxygen, water, and food.
– Then I started looking for who from other expeditions was near Saulius’s location. I had direct contacts and contacted the leaders of those expeditions, company directors. I asked if they had oxygen and who was going down.
Contacting one, they said there was a Sherpa and one client and that they would go down. Then they wrote to me that they found Saulius, that he was in a tent. They gave him oxygen, water, and food. That was a relief.”
However, as emphasized by T. Jeršovas, S. Damulevičius had activated a distress signal via satellite.
“Saulius’s tracker was stuck. It showed that he was always higher up. But at that time he was actually descending. He was descending alone, there was no help,” emphasized T. Jeršovas.
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According to him, to contact the members of the mentioned expedition, he had to communicate with a person who might not even have been in Nepal at that time.
He was descending alone, there was no help.
“The conversation went through maybe three people, so there was very strong miscommunication there,” said the interlocutor.
– I know that there are still people from the expedition on the mountain, so I don’t get involved too much now. When the season ends, I will try to find out why it happened that way.”
According to T. Jeršovas, at that time S. Damulevičius was simply descending on his own strength to the third camp.
“Before that, I managed to contact Saulius’s local agency, with which he had services up to the base camp. I contacted the manager, and managed to find a few Sherpas at the second camp who would take oxygen and go up to meet Saulius, and that’s how it ended. They met at the third camp,” shared T. Jeršovas.
– Indeed, after many hours, Saulius sent a message that he was at 7.3 km altitude and descending towards the third camp. And at that time I already knew that those two people were coming from below towards the third camp, towards Saulius, that they were close. It was clear they would be there within an hour. They met at the third camp.
We didn’t discuss exactly how he descended. The three of them reached the second camp. It was already arranged that when conditions allow, they would descend to the hospital to check for lung damage and other issues.”
He himself has turned back several times while climbing mountains.
As T. Jeršovas himself tells, he has turned back several times while climbing mountains.
“You see that you might not have enough strength to return, so you turn back. There are many cases when people try to set some altitude record or something else. Saulius has climbed K2 (8611 m), so realistically he was higher than he was now,” said the interlocutor.
We remind you that S. Damulevičius is the first Lithuanian to have climbed K2 and Gasherbrum I.
