Attempt at the Reconstruction of Events as they Unfolded
From the Arrival of Pascal at the Summit (Tuesday 18th May At 2.00 p.m.)
to His Fatal Fall Down The North Face (Wednesday the 19th, At 4.00 p.m.)

Before the return of Alain Hubert and Joao Garcia to their respective countries, we will, of course, not be able to know the precise circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Pascal. Nevertheless, it seems important to us to try to assemble the maximum of reliable information possible, in order to reconstruct the events leading to the drama, as a kind of homage that the site wishes to address to the family Debrouwer. For this we needed, of course, to have the agreement of Nathalie Debrouwer. When approached over the phone, she consented to help, and for this we are very grateful. The sources used for putting together this reconstruction are the following: telephone conversations between Nathalie Debrouwer and Joao Garcia, since the disappearance of her husband; those calls (as well as the e-mails) between Michel Brent (HQ) and Alain Hubert at the ABC; and the detailed account of the events published by Patagonia on the internet. http://www.alaska.net/%7Eptgmtnag/everest99/dispatches/5_21pm.html.

• Tuesday 18th May: They reach the summit around 2.00 p.m., and spend too long searching for the tripod left by the Chinese expedition, without realising that they are actually at the summit.
• We don't really understand very well this whole episode of the tripod. It was a measuring instrument, which had been deposited at the summit of Everest in order to measure the correct height of the mountain. But everyone knows that this instrument disappeared a while ago. Why do Pascal and Joao not know it. ?
• Three Poles summit one or two hours beforehand. We do not know if Pascal and Joao meet them on the way up?
• In any case, they begin the descent around 4.30 in the afternoon. The storm is rising and the wind is blowing increasingly hard, and when the night falls, said Joao, it is very dark. The weather is frightful. According to the account of Vincent Propotopoff, one of the clients of Pascal, (who was at base camp on that fateful night, and who has since returned to France and was able to contact Nathalie Debrouwer on the afternoon of Sunday May 23rd) the storm rose in a the space of half an hour, the sky turned black, a fog descended, and it began to snow, a vision of hell.
• They could not find the bag containing the torch and had thus to continue down without any light.
• Although they were advancing together, they arranged to meet at camp 3 (8 300m), should they become separated and lose sight of each other, something that could easily happen under such circumstances.
• They effectively become separated from each other because of the wind (there is no way of being heard above the noise) and the darkness, and also because of the fact that they cannot follow too closely behind each other along the fixed ropes and once below, they do not necessarily wait for the other, from the moment that the latter assures them that everything is OK.
• Tuesday 18th May, 7 p.m.: The Polish team at the ABC receives a radio distress call from one of their climbers in difficulty above 8 500m, Ryszard Pawlowski. He wants them to bring help, oxygen and Sherpas. He informs the ABC that one of their team have disappeared, and that he is himself in a desperate situation, and that two Belgian climbers have also disappeared: referring to Joao and Pascal. He also gives details on the weather conditions: the temperature is below -30°C, and the wind is wildly blowing snow everywhere.
• Warned of what was happening, Alain Hubert organised rescue efforts and offered a bundle of dollars to the Poles so that their Sherpas, who had carried out one rescue mission, should also go back to help Joao, and Pascal. They refused.
• Wednesday 19th May, 7.40am: Jacek Maselko, one of the Poles who had gone up with the two Sherpas to rescue his companions called from 7800m. He informs Alain Hubert by radio that he had met Joao on his way down and that he looked like a ghost. He had offered him something to drink, and Joao had refused. When he asked where Pascal was, he replied that he gone ahead and that he would find him in the tent lower down.
• Joao was to tell Nathalie that they had lost sight of each other but that Pascal was strong and that he thought to find him in the tent. Here at the HQ we don't know whether he meant the tent was at 8300m or at 7 800m.
• Wednesday 19 May, 9.30am: The rescue team of the Poles arrived at the second climber, Ryszard Pawlowski, who had remained awake all night moving his fingers and toes. The third Pole, Tadeusz Kudelski, could not be located; he was never to return. One of the Sherpas could make out a figure in the mist and went over to him. It was Pascal. According to the Sherpa, Pascal did not respond when he tried to shake him. He did not attempt in any case to ascertain whether or not the Belgian was still alive, and the four men, (the two Poles and the two Sherpas) descended without giving him the least aid. Despite the fact that Pascal was still alive at this point, perhaps in a semi-comatose state. This happened at 8500m, just below the First Step (Note : There are three difficult points between camp 3 and the summit: the First Step and the Second Step consisting of two cliffs graded 4-5 in climbing difficulty, and what mountaineers have called "the Cathedral", the last obstacle which can be circled instead of being scaled).
• Alain explained that Pascal had emptied his bottle of oxygen (which he had switched on just below the summit for the climb up) and that he fell asleep near the First Step, in order to wait for the first rays of daylight (around 5.00 in the morning). This maybe explains why he didn't react immediately when the Sherpa of the Polish party attempted to revive him. It was in no way a sufficient excuse for the Polish team to leave the place without verifying whether or not he was still alive.
• When this team reached camp 3, around 10.30am, Joao was already there, suffering from severe frostbite, his feet, hands and nose frozen. Seeing that Pascal had not returned, he informed the Poles that he was setting off back up the mountain to search for him. From the ABC, Alain Hubert who had managed to make radio contact with him attempted to dissuade him from undertaking such a mad scheme.
• After a long discussion, Joao agreed to descend; he reached the North Col at the end of the afternoon of Wednesday, in a pitiful state.
• Wednesday 19th May, morning: not being able to count on the assistance of the Poles, Alain put into action a rescue effort to go to the aid of Pascal. He entered into radio contact with a team of Italians, who he knew were advancing along the ridge.
• Wednesday, 1pm: radio contact was established with the Italians (who were climbing with two Sherpas) and who were waiting to hear the weather forecasts before deciding whether to make an attempt on the summit. Informed of the condition of Pascal they decided to immediately head off to his rescue.
• The four men arrived within sight of Pascal around 4pm: as the weather had improved, they would, according to Alain, have been around 500m away from Pascal when they caught sight of him. Pascal had obviously lost his way. At the present time, we do not know whether the place where he was seen at that time of the day, was the same as that where he had been abandoned by the Poles, seven hours previously. So we do not know if during the course of day on Wednesday, the Marchois had managed to still find the strength to move around and descend a little.
• As they were approaching, they saw Pascal rise to his feet, then seat himself, several times, but from where they were, he already seemed to be in dreadful shape. Then suddenly, it became dramatic. They saw Pascal rise to his feet and stumble, then slip sharply, and disappear down the rock face. It was then around 5.00 p.m. According to the Italians, who tried to get closer, it was impossible to go to his rescue, as the rock face was completely flat and inaccessible.
• In order to explain the actions of Pascal in his last moments of life, his wife made the following observation "Pascal had an incredible instinct for survival. I know that he would have struggled right to the very end, and that when the Italians saw him rising and falling, he was certainly already engaged in the final battle that every man, and Pascal more anyone else, would give, before at last succumbing.
• Thursday evening, Joao reached advanced base camp (ABC), with second-degree frostbite to his feet,fingers and nose, but alive. A Georgian doctor immediately came to his assistance.

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