The image in question…
Marco Confortola, a 54-year-old mountaineer from Italy, is being accused of falsifying images to claim that he’s conquered all 14 of the world’s peaks higher than 8,000 meters. The achievement would put Confortola in an elite group of just 50 people on the planet who’ve done so, but at least one image of the Italian has brought his entire claim into question.
A fellow Italian climber is leading the accusations of fraud, Simone Moro. He alleges that Confortola stopped short of six summits, including Kangchenjunga (the third highest peak in the world) and Annapurna. In regards to Kangchenjunga, Moro says Confortola used a photo of Kangchenjunga taken by a Pakistani climber, cropped him out, and inserted himself into a summit shown on Lhotse, originally taken by Spanish alpinist Jorge Egocheaga.
This similar image taken by Jorge Egocheaga, from Spain, was allegedly used to forge Confortola’s selfie
The accusation could have a significant negative impact for Confortola no matter how the drama unfolds. He lost all of his toes to frostbite on K2 in 2008, which only fueled the wow factor of his later accomplishments. He’s since gone on to author five books and reportedly makes a living as a motivational speaker for corporate clients. To Confortola, however, all these factors just explain why his feats are under so much scrutiny in the first place. He refutes the claims of fraud and says his accusers are simply jealous of him.
“Who does Simone Moro think he is?” he told the Italian newspaper, La Stampa. “My mistake was not dying on K2 in 2008 – that way these stars would have been happy.”
Another famous mountaineer weighed in on the drama without mincing words. “I follow traditional mountaineering,” Italian alpinist Reinhold Messner told Italian media outlet, La Repubblica, “where an elegant style and a certain way of moving are important. Confortola belongs to the era of eight-thousanders on slopes: the era of tourists, not mountaineers.”
It’s certainly a spicy piece of mountaineering drama worth keeping an eye on.
