Ing. Eva Novotná

"The second time we were there, we found a piece of fabric from a sleeping bag, a twisted lid of a mess tin. Then the snow and ice melted and there were only rocks left. Not that we could see that there had ever been a camp there, no."

"He slipped on that rocky path, and just as he was crossing the creek, I think it was something like that. He slipped and fell into the creek, he must have fallen on his head. Unfortunately. At that point - since he was one of the best climbers there, they wanted to climb a good wall - it came off. They decided to take the easier route to Huascarán, so they moved their camp. They packed up the camp and had it packed up and were just waiting for some Peruvians from down below to come and pick them up. And then there was an avalanche. They were packed up, everything, just waiting for the car to come get them. And the avalanche came. There was an earthquake. And the avalanche struck because of the earthquake."

"The fact is we've rolled over. We both stayed lying down, I had about thirteen fractures. Some vertebrae, some ribs, an arm, a leg, there was a lot. My friend too. After a month spent in a hospital in Chile, we knew nothing about each other or our backpacks. It all got scattered around. I was in some hospital, what was it called? My friend was in a town called Antofagasta and I don't even remember what town it was, I'd have to think back again. We didn't know about each other. They didn't know we belonged together, but in time they found out. But we were separated for a month, about 200 kilometres apart. Simply - when this happened there, they somehow called somebody and loaded us onto a jeep or something, they just threw us in the back seat, so with the fractures, even spinal ones, and everything, they didn't deal with that."

"We were scared - we had children at home - that we would get stuck there as well. That something could happen, and we would get stuck there too. So both on the plane and there, we only felt relieved after we landed at home in Ruzyně. How long were we there for? Well, not long, 14 days. Well, it must have been 14 days, because we flew to Lima via Africa, via Dakar, I think. And then taking buses from Lima, it takes two or three days to get there. That took a while, from Lima. Well, and then, the climbers from Lima or the locals took us in. Well, and we went up there to see it, so that was my first time there."

"Yes, they moved up to that second place and three of them climbed Huascarán the easier way, three of them climbed it. And then they decided they were going to get out of there already. At that point they were all at that base camp, they had basically everything packed up and were just waiting for some sort of a ride, they had some kind of a ride ordered, either by a car - there was probably a jeep or something like that that could get up there. Well, and then the earthquake came, and because of the earthquake, basically a piece of rock from the top of the mountain came down, and it took ice with it, and unfortunately, it flew right to where their camp was. So basically, they were all buried under this rock and ice avalanche."