Footless Ecuadoran mountaineer aiming to scale K2

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Footless Ecuadoran mountaineer to climb K2

IlalÃ³ (Ecuador) (AFP) - An Ecuadoran who lost both his feet is aiming to become the first climber to scale the world's toughest mountain, K2, with artificial limbs and without oxygen supplies.


"They told me I would never climb 5,000-meter mountains again," the smiling 41-year-old told AFP.


Quintero scaled Mount Everest, the world's highest peak at 8,848 meters (29,029 feet), in 2013. The expedition landed him in the hospital in intensive care.

Now he is aiming to conquer K2 -- the second-highest mountain at 8,611 meters, but considered technically the hardest to climb.





In total 188 mountaineers have scaled K2.

"They did it with their bodies fully intact," said Quintero. "That's quite different."


"I am quite determined," he told AFP, while resting during a training climb on the extinct Ilalo volcano in northern Ecuador.

"Without the mountains, I think I would rather be dead."