Nanga Parbat Winter Rescue: Tomasz Mackiewicz Never Came Down

On 25 January 2018, Élisabeth Revol and Tomasz Mackiewicz reported reaching the summit of Nanga Parbat in winter. During the descent, Mackiewicz became snow-blind and unable to move. Revol eventually descended alone after receiving instructions that help might reach him. Four climbers were transferred by helicopter from the Polish winter K2 expedition. Adam Bielecki and Denis Urubko then climbed through the night and found Revol near 6,100 m. This reconstruction follows the messages, funding, aircraft limits, route decisions, and rope work behind her rescue. Sources include the American Alpine Journal, Alpinist, ExplorersWeb, Le Monde, Outside, National Geographic, AFP reporting, and the archived international rescue coordination log. Conflicting summit, altitude, timing, funding, and injury reports are identified in the narration. Checked September 2026. CHAPTERS 0:00 One Came Down 3:24 The Seventh Winter 5:28 Above the Plateau 7:48 Messages and Money 10:08 The Night Climb 12:35 The Lowering 14:49 What Stayed Above SOURCES American Alpine Journal, “Nanga Parbat: Second Winter Ascent, First Complete Ascent of Northwest Face, and Rescue,” 2018 Alpinist, “A Retrospective on the Second Winter Ascent of Nanga Parbat,” 2018 Alpinist, “Elisabeth Revol Rescued and Tomek Mackiewicz Presumed Dead on Nanga Parbat,” 2018 ExplorersWeb, “Elisabeth Revol Describes Nanga Parbat Rescue,” 2018 ExplorersWeb, “The End of the Rescue Operation at Nanga Parbat,” 2018 ExplorersWeb, “Nanga Parbat Happy and Unhappy End,” 2018 Le Monde, “Elisabeth Revol raconte, dans Vivre, sa tragédie sur le Nanga Parbat,” 2019 Outside, “Rescue on the Killer Mountain,” 2018 National Geographic, “‘Killer Mountain’ Strands Climber as Another Is Rescued,” 2018 The Guardian, “French Climber Tells of Ordeal on Pakistan’s ‘Killer Mountain’,” 2018 Le Point and AFP, “Rescapée de l’Himalaya, l’alpiniste Elisabeth Revol de retour en France,” 2018 MedEverest archive, international WhatsApp coordination log for the Nanga Parbat rescue, 2018 PHOTO CREDITS (Wikimedia Commons) "Elisabethrevol.jpg" by Carouse69 this is not true:(, CC BY-SA 4.0 "AdamBielecki.jpg" by Yyoex, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Denis Urubko.jpg" by Андрей Старков (Andrei Starkov), CC BY-SA 3.0 "A close-up of Nanga Parbat from trek to Fairy Meadows.JPG" by Nida Aziz, CC BY-SA 3.0 "Airview.jpg" by Ammargilani, CC BY-SA 3.0 "Byal Camp , near Nanga Parbat base camp.jpg" by Mimalkera, CC BY-SA 4.0 "Chongra Ridge.jpg" by Daniel Martin, CC BY 3.0 "Herrligkoffer base camp 2010.jpg" by Shaun Metcalfe, CC BY 2.0 "3. Skardu desert Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. Photo P.K. Shimlawala.JPG" by Pervez Ahmad Khan, CC BY-SA 3.0 "Flickr - * * - Nanga Parbat.jpg" by Guilhem Vellut, CC BY-SA 2.0 "Nanga Parbat, Rupal face.jpg" by Daniel Martin (User:Eleutherosmartin), CC BY-SA 3.0 Stock footage: Storyblocks (illustrative, not the actual events). Narration: synthetic voice. #mountaineering #NangaParbat #documentary #climbing