February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
McDonnell, a native of County Limerick, perished when a wall of ice turned into a deadly avalanche as climbers, including McDonnell, were descending from the 28,250-foot summit.
McDonnell, 37, was the first Irishman to conquer what is considered the world’s toughest and most dangerous peak. The glory of that conquest, however, was all too short lived.
“Ger was a great climber, an adventurer and a true Irishman. He will be missed by all those that knew him but the success of his life will not be forgotten,” said Banjo Bannon, a fellow mountaineer from Newry, County Down.
Bannon was with McDonnell two years ago during an unsuccessful attempt to summit K2 which is an acronym for Karakoram Two. The mountain is in that part of the Himalayan chain known as the Karakoram.
“It was a great sense of pride for Ireland when Ger made the summit followed by a tragic loss when he did not make it back to tell the tale,” Bannon told the Echo.
McDonnell was a computer engineer who had moved to Anchorage in Alaska a decade ago, not only to work but also to develop his skills as a mountaineer.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that McDonnell had contacted his girlfriend Annie Starkey on his satellite phone while atop K2.
When news came through of the tragedy that had befallen McDonnell and the other climbers soon afterwards, a pall descended on the annual Galway Days Irish festival in downtown Anchorage.
McDonnell was well known in the city’s Irish community. Among his interests was playing the bodhran in a band.
“He loved to have the craic, as we’d say in Ireland,” a friend, John Walsh told the Daily News.
Another friend, Richard Gelardin, described McDonnell as a gem.
“He was a philosopher, a great storyteller, and just a wonderful, warm, kind, loving person. Mostly, he was a mountain climber,” Gelardin said.
McDonnell was one of 22 people who reached the top of K2 last Friday. This was a big number for a mountain which has only been scaled by about 250 climbers, as opposed to more than 2,600 on Everest.
McDonnell was a member of the Dutch-led Norit K2 Expedition. At presstime the expedition’s website carried this grim message: “We are very sorry to inform you that our friend and climbing partner Gerard McDonnell died while descending from K2 Summit. We deeply sympathize with Ger’s family in Ireland and his girlfriend Ann. Our friend Gerard will not return from K2.”