I heard about Fredrik Ericsson’s death from my buddy Jarkko Henttonen. It was sad to hear that Fredrik “Frippe” Ericsson had died on K2 in Pakistan, which is the second highest peak in the world. According to several sources Fredrik joined Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner on the way to the summit of K2. For unknown reason Ericsson fell 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) and was killed. Kaltenbrunner aborted the summit attempt.

Weather forecast on K2 was stated to be excellent. It was clear when Fredrik Ericsson left for the summit, but suddenly a very strong storm moved in. Fredrik, Austrian Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and other climbers were already near the top, but something went wrong and Fredrik fell.

According to Austria Press Agency (APA), German climber Ralf Dujmovits (Kaltenbrunner’s husband), who had initially made the K2 climb, confirmed there had been a serious accident. Gerlinde was able to return to Camp IV, and is already coming down from K2.

Conditions on the mountain have not been easy. The team has reported numerous avalanches.

According to Wikipedia, Fredrik Ericsson was born in Sweden on 1975. During the summer of 2003 Ericsson climbed and skied the 7495 meters high Peak Communism in Tajikistan. In 2004 he became the first Swede to ski descend the  8000-meters peak when he skied from the central summit of Shisha Pangma (8012m) in Tibet. In 2005 Ericsson and his Norwegian friend Jörgen Aamot made an attempt to ski the coveted Laila Peak (6069m) in Pakistan were forced to turn back due to bad weather condition. Same year they also skied from the summit of Gasherbrum II (8035m). Ericsson returned to the Himalayas in 2007 to attempt Dhaulagiri (8167m) in Nepal. Massive amount of snow and dangerous conditions forced him to turn around at 8000 meters from where he skied 3000 vertical meters down to base camp.

This is a sad day. Fredrik Ericsson was attempting to ski world’s three highest peaks: Mount Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga. I still remember how excited and enthusiastic Fredrik Ericsson and Trey Cook were when I received Trey’s email from Peshawar. They were really looking forward to climb and ski K2. We agreed to publish several stories with stunning photos from K2, and I was eager to hear all the news from Fredrik and Trey, but it all went different.

Our thoughts go out to Fredrik Ericsson’s family and friends.