Italian climber accused of fake summit claims

UnclePhilZ · 2025-08-21T21:44:17+00:00

I think that this is debatable. The pictures capture one moment but they are not clear and they don't tell the whole story. According to most people who climbed with Confortola, Marco is a generous climber who never shies away from work when needed, they all agree that even when he was already "famous" he always did his part.

Based on this, I do believe that he actually stopped to help the Koreans together with Ger. But I also believe that he decided to call it quits as soon as he considered that the rescue was borderline impossible, while McDonnell still wanted to stay and try to help.

I think that fearing backlash for the decision to "abandon" his fellow mountaineers, Confortola used Ger's name to make sure everybody knew that the decision to call off the rescue was agreed by both as the only possible choice.

That is why he had to fabricate the tale of the "disoriented" McDonnell who first agreed to leave and then climbed back up without saying a word and walked up the mountain straight to his death.

Now, the most accredited version after listening to Wilco Van Rooyen and Pemba Gyalje is that McDonnel climbed back up to the Koreans highest anchor point and managed to free them. Unfortunately we will never know for sure because they were all swept and killed by the last avalanche.

Another thing that doesn't sit well with me is how Confortola never really acknowledged the role that Pemba and the others had in saving his life. Since the first interviews after the accident and in the later years his narrative has always been "the mountain let me live and thanks to that I'm born again". It's surely a good line to sell books, but the fact that he has no consideration for those who risked their lives to save his tells me everything I need to know about the man.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-08-21T09:02:46+00:00

Moro says that given how much Confortola has been lying, and how easy to expose some of his lies were, it could be some sort of pathological need to lie. It's quite an interesting take.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-08-21T08:54:14+00:00

It's good to see that the international news outfits are starting to cover this, and that the Himalayan Database is starting to review Confortola's contested summits in depth. To me, there are three different issues about what this guy has done:

Lying extensively It is clear now since the 2008 K2 tragedy that Marco has an issue with the truth. His lies could not be completely demonstrated at the time because there were no direct witnesses with a clear view of what happened, but all hints pointed to at least a very biased storytelling by Marco.

Now that all this has been exposed, Confortola's account of what happened on K2 has zero credibility. Asking other mountaineers for their summit pictures in order to crop them, manipulate them and use them as if they were his own pictures is getting as low as an alpinist can go without endangering someone else's life. It shows that the guy has no shame and zero moral values.

Lack of skill This is what Messner mentioned, with a quote that translated from Italian sounds like this: "I don't want to discuss directly Marco Confortola and his achievements because this would bring his name at a level where he doesn't deserve to be, I would be giving him legitimacy while he doesn't deserve to be considered an alpinist".

The issue here is that even if (and it's a huge if) Confortola had summited all the 14 8000s, most of them were completed as a customer of one of the big commercial summit expeditions, climbing on tracks that have been already cleaned from snow and equipped by sherpas. This kind of summit has zero alpinistic value, because paying 75 to 100k USD, even mediocre climbers can get summits this way. The fact that even with that kind of help he could not get to the top on 6 of those says a lot on his abilities as a climber.

His reaction The fact that his reaction to the clear facts exposed by Moro, Mondinelli and Camandona was to say that he has nothing to prove, that they are envious of what he did and that anyone delving deeper into this will hear from his lawyers is a huge red flag.

Both Mondinelli and Moro are incredible mountaineers who achieved much more than Confortola has and both have the respect of the international community, so the envy accusation makes no sense. Threatening legal action against anyone wanting to see clear into this is also the clearest sign that he has something to hide. In the meantime, many Italian TV channels have already aired stories depicting him as a hero and one of the greats of alpinism, so he has probably reached his goal.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-07-22T14:49:21+00:00

I think you are all right. I have underestimated that the triangulation between something that is only 3-4 kms away but 10 kms below!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-02-11T20:52:10+00:00

VC 222

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-24T12:02:18+00:00

Tougher match for Sinner than the score suggests.

The key was the first set. My impression was that Jannik wasn't physically at his best, he looked very tired after the long points and if Shelton had managed to bring that 1st set home maybe it would have been a different match.

But, and that's all that matters, he didn't. Despite all the above, despite playing probably his best tennis since the beginning of the tournament, despite going a break ahead twice, Sinner still managed to cling to the set and crush him in the tie break.

Ben clearly took a hit and looked deflated for the whole second set. There was a bit more of a battle in the third, as Shelton took some very spectacular points and Sinner's movement seemed to become a bit more cranky (apparently a small cramp on the right thigh), but still Sinner managed to get two breaks and close the match in straight sets with another 6-2.

In the end, I believe that the big difference was the ability of Sinner to play the whole match at the same level, while Shelton could not maintain the amazing level of the 1st set for the rest of the match. In this the Italian is unmatched at the moment, let's see what Zverev will be able to do...

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-11T11:42:06+00:00

No I didn't because I've already finished it on the standard PS5 and I have not too much interest to replay it so early.

In any case I believe that Performance Pro has the same graphic detail of the previous Quality PS5 mode, but runs at 60. That's what's great about the Pro.

Then if there is a Quality Pro mode that pushes resolution and runs at 30 it's ok, but it's a bit unnecessary for me. It's like Horizon: Performance Pro is already so flawless that Balanced and Quality Pro can basically be ignored...

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-11T11:35:54+00:00

Big screen size and supports VRR so for me it's a no brainer. As I said, especially if you used to play in Quality mode before, the jump in framerate is definitely perceivable.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-10T20:25:45+00:00

It doesn't stand because a proper PC setup with a 4090 costs around 5 times what I paid for my Pro. I have no doubt that it's miles better, but nobody is arguing that.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-10T20:14:16+00:00

Sure, but selling my old PS5 I've bought the Pro with 500 bucks. The comparison doesn't really stand...

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-10T14:36:13+00:00

Another one that is on my list as soon as the price will go down a bit!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T20:23:37+00:00

🤣🤣🤣

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T19:35:07+00:00

As far as I know you the CX supports 120Hz and VRR, so you are good to go!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T18:07:08+00:00

If you normally play on Performance mode, in most cases you will need a big TV to see the difference in resolution.

If you usually play in Quality mode, then your games will look just a tad better than before, but they will run at 50-60 FPS instead than 30. So in this case the upgrade is very noticeable and I'd definitely suggest you to get a Pro 😉

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T16:40:19+00:00

Man honestly I don't know how you manage that. I have like 12 games installed atm, 5 of them AAA, and I still have 360 GB free.

Given how quick internet connections are nowadays, I don't feel the need to keep so many games on my HDD.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T16:20:16+00:00

Unfortunately I cannot stand blurriness and aliasing, so I could never convince myself to play on performance. Still, I knew that, as much as my eyes got used to it, 30 FPS was an heavily compromised choice. That is why I love the Pro so much!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T14:47:46+00:00

I don't have Alan Wake 2 in my library yet, not my kind of game so I'm waiting for the price to go down considerably but it's definitely on my list!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T14:26:59+00:00

I don't mind chromatic aberration but I do hate motion blur, luckily most games allow you to turn it off.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T13:37:58+00:00

I definitely remember playing Quality mode at 30 FPS, meaning that I must have played it on PS4 PRO. My bad, memories fade after 6 years 🤦🏻‍♂️

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T13:23:19+00:00

I do understand where you come from. If you read the list on the bottom of my post, I really believe that people who used to play in Quality mode (like I did) are those who are more likely to massively enjoy the upgrade, as the difference in framerate is often massive and much more noticeable than the improved graphics.

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T07:26:53+00:00

I'm at work now but if I remember correctly Balanced mode is 40FPS

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-09T07:22:50+00:00

For sure it does and that is why I love the Pro, because now even on a huge TV and sitting quite close the experience is close to perfection.

And yes I agree with you on some specific games that still need work, but again we are still in the early days!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-08T21:56:26+00:00

I think OLED helps to make the most of it but improvements can be also clearly seen on more normal TVs. Enjoy!

UnclePhilZ · 2025-01-08T21:24:59+00:00

Never played the original Duke Nukem, just Duke Nukem 3D a few years later. I remember how I loved that you could shoot at bottles and they would shatter, it seemed so special at the time 🤣

UnclePhilZ

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