Julie Tullis (née Palau) (15 March 1939 – 6/7 August 1986) was a British climber and filmmaker who died while descending from K2's summit during a storm, along with four other climbers from several expeditions, during the "Black Summer" of 1986.

Early life

Julie was born to Erica and Francis Palau. Her early life was disrupted by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1956, she began climbing near

Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the Weald, High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Roc ...

, where she met Terry Tullis. In 1959, they were married and spent the following years running various small businesses. They also continued climbing, in addition to which Julie studied traditional Japanese martial arts, under David Passmore in the Budokan school, Tunbridge Wells. She occasionally practised karate forms in traditional

hakama are a type of traditional Japanese clothing. Originally stemming from (), the trousers worn by members of the Chinese imperial court in the Sui and Tang dynasties, this style was adopted by the Japanese in the form of in the 6th centur ...

when climbing.

Mountaineering career

Tullis met Austrian climber

Kurt Diemberger Kurt Diemberger (born 16 March 1932) is an Austrian mountaineer and author of several books. He is the only living person who has made the first ascents on two mountains over 8,000 metres: of Broad Peak in 1957 and of Dhaulagiri in 1960. Career ...

in 1976, and by 1980 they were working together on lecture tours. In 1981, Diemberger hired Tullis as a technician for an expedition to

Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat ( ur, ) (; ), known locally as Diamer () which means “king of the mountains”, is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth, its summit at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in ...

, and their high-altitude filming career began. It would include, in the following years, expeditions to the North ridge of K2 and the unclimbed North-East ridge of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

. In 1984, Tullis and Diemberger climbed

Broad Peak Broad Peak ( ur, ) is a mountain in the Karakoram on the border of Pakistan and China, the twelfth-highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It was first ascended in June 1957 by Fritz Wintersteller, Marcus Schmuck, Kurt Diemberger, an ...

, and after more film work they went on an expedition to climb K2, in 1986, becoming part of the 1986 K2 disaster. Although Tullis and Diemberger finally made the summit on 4 August 1986, making Tullis the first British woman to do so, they were exhausted from spending several days above 8,000 metres; 26,000' (known as the

death zone In mountaineering, the death zone refers to altitudes above a certain point where the pressure of oxygen is Effects of high altitude on humans, insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span. This point is generally tagged as , less ...

). On the descent, Tullis slipped and fell; although Diemberger's

belay Belaying is a variety of techniques climbers use to create friction within a climbing system, particularly on a climbing rope, so that a falling climber does not fall very far. A climbing partner typically applies tension at the other end of t ...

successfully saved them both, it is likely that Tullis suffered internal or head injuries that began to affect her vision and co-ordination. Arriving at Camp IV they were trapped in their tents by a storm that lasted for several days. All the trapped climbers deteriorated physically and mentally, lacking food, sleep, oxygen and, once the gas for the stoves ran out, the ability to melt snow and produce water. This, in turn, made them vulnerable to pulmonary or cerebral

oedema Edema, also spelled oedema, and also known as fluid retention, dropsy, hydropsy and swelling, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may include skin which feels tight, the area ma ...

, which in Tullis' condition would have been rapidly fatal. Tullis died on the night of 6/7 August (the accounts of Diemberger and another climber present, Willi Bauer, differ on the date) and was buried on the mountainside.

Notes

In 2005, an audio cassette tape diary recorded by Tullis in 1982 was recovered from the glacier below K2.

References

* * * * *Audrey Salkeld, ‘Tullis, Julia Elissa May (1939–1986)’
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Oxford University Press, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tullis, Julie 1939 births 1986 deaths Deaths from edema English mountain climbers Female climbers Mountaineering deaths on K2