A climber who survived the biggest tragedy ever on Mt. Qomolangma, also known as Mt.  Everest but lost his nose, fingers and toes will make a triumphant return to the world's highest peak as part of the Olympics ceremony next year.

It will be a moment of special personal victory for Taiwan-based mountaineer Ming-Ho Gau, who last year began a campaign on the 10th year of the 1996 disaster to clear himself of the accusations piled on him by a western climber.

May 10, 1996 is remembered in mountaineering annals as the blackest date in the history of Mt. Qomolangma with eight climbers perishing while attempting the 8,848-metre peak.

Four men and a woman, who were part of two commercial expeditions climbing from Nepal, and three men from a 39-member Indo-China Border Police team died in a single day apparently due to a freak storm.

The tragedy became a household subject after US journalist Jon Krakauer, who was sent by Outside magazine to cover the Qomolangma expedition led by New Zealand climber Robert Hall's Adventure Consultants agency, wrote a book. 'Into Thin Air', a 'personal account' by Krakauer, became a bestseller and was made into a film.

Of the people who managed to reach the peak May 10 from Nepal, only four survived.

Besides Krakauer, they were Anatoli Boukreev, a Russian guide with Mountain Madness, the agency's high-profile client socialite-cum-journalist Sandy Hill Pittman, and Gau, the 47-year-old leader of the Taiwanese expedition.

Krakauer's book comes down heavily on all three, portraying Boukreev as not caring for the safety of his clients, Pittman as being a selfish social climber, and Gau as a slow climber who delayed others, was callous about the death of his teammate the previous day and broke his promise that he would not attempt the summit May 10.

 

Now, 11 years after the tragedy, Gau, who had to rebuild his life as well as face and body with extensive plastic surgery, is readying to return to the killer mountain.

In 2008, a spectacular torch relay will end on Mt. Qomolangma. Beijing is training two teams for the gruelling event. One of the teams is to be led by survivor Gau.