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Posted on 06/08/2006 4:14:04 PM PDT by Serb5150
KATMANDU, Nepal - Just days after a British climber was left to die near Mount Everest's summit, an American guide abandoned his second bid to stand on top of the world so he could rescue a mountaineer mistakenly given up for dead.
Not only did Daniel Mazur not scale the world's highest peak from the northern side, he also failed to get his two paying clients to the top.
"It was very disappointing for me to miss my chance at the summit, but even more that I could not get my job done," Mazur, of Olympia, Wash., told The Associated Press upon returning to Nepal's capital, Katmandu, on Thursday.
Mazur, his two clients and a Sherpa guide were just two hours from the 29,035-foot peak on the morning of May 26 when they came across 50-year-old Lincoln Hall, who was left a day earlier when his own guides believed he was dead.
"I was shocked to see a guy without gloves, hat, oxygen bottles or sleeping bag at sunrise at 28,200 feet height, just sitting up there," said Mazur, who scaled Everest once before, from the southern side, in 1991.
Mazur said Hall's first words to him were: "I imagine you are surprised to see me here."
Mazur said he knew Hall was OK because he was not crying for help and still had a sense of humor.
Mazur's team spent the next four hours pulling Hall away from the slopes, giving him bottled oxygen, food and liquids.
They also radioed the base camp to tell Hall's surprised team he was still alive.
While Mazur's team was busy assisting Hall, two Italian climbers walked past them toward the summit. When asked to help, they claimed they did not understand English. On his return to base camp, Mazur discovered they did.
"I don't know why they didn't want to stop to help," Mazur said. "I hope when I am there, in that state, and someone passes me ... I hope it is someone like me."
Hall's rescue came just days after David Sharp, 34, died May 15, about 1,000 feet into his descent from the summit. Dozens of people walked right past him, unwilling to risk their own ascents.
By the time some Sherpas showed up to help get Hall back to base camp, Mazur, his clients and his own Sherpa were too exhausted to attempt the peak. They had no choice but to return without completing their climb.
"We all looked at the summit and then returned," he said. "We all agreed there was no choice."
But Mazur had no regrets.
"Oh yeah, it was worth it," he said. "You can always go back to the summit but you only have one life to live. If we had left the man to die, that would have always been on my mind ... How could you live with yourself?"
American mountain guide Daniel Mazur, from Olympia, Washington, talks to the Associated Press in Katmandu, Nepal, Thursday, June 8, 2006. Mazur, gave up his chance to be on top Mt. Everest just two hours from the 8,850-meter (29,035 foot) summit on the morning of May 26, to rescue a British climber Lincoln Hall, 50, who had been left a day earlier by his own guides believing he was dead. (AP Photo/ Binod Joshi)
I was bashed quite a bit for supporting this kind of action in the previous case. Nice to see SOME Americans still think human life is tantamount to climbing a freaking mountain many have climbed already.
Guess they won't be receiving much of a tip.
A number of Freepers mentioned a book called 'Into Thin Air' on the previous thread that really piqued my interest. I haven't picked it up yet, but hopefully I'll be able to do so before very long.
I would like to see the British Government give him a knighthood or something. I would like to see those who left him to die publicly shamed throughout the climbing community.
What a good person this man is.
This fellow they found was in much better shape than the one mentioned in the other thread, IIRC. What I find disappointing are the Italian climbers that refused assistance.
Keep in mind that Hall could walk.
The first climber could not walk. He could not even stand with help. He was a 250 pound frozen ice cube.
The two native Sherpa guides could not lower his frozen body down the slope.
If the first climber could stand up, joke and walk on his own like Hall, he'd probably be alive today.
What an excellent idea - he is truly a hero.
You are absolutely right, I have no doubt that Hall's condition is what saved his life. I wonder what happened to him in the first place that caused his party to desert him?
An all around Darn Good Day today.
I hope this thread gets as much attention as the other threads received. Too often the good in this world is glossed over.
bump
Another account of the same climb is called, The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest (Mass Market Paperback) by the Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev.
Boukreev was the Russian climber who went out an rescued other climbers. His feat was almost super human in that he was going out in a subzero blizzard on the highest mountain in the world, having not slept for days, with very little to eat and with little or no oxygen.
I wonder the same thing. They probably will have some answering to do when Hall writes his book.
Of course weird things can happen up there. Maybe Hall was unconscious and unable to respond.
And a side not about the Russian climber. He died on K2 a couple of years after the fateful 96 climb.
I bet. From the very little I know about Everest, I wouldn't doubt that some very strange things start happening to the human mind and body at that altitude.
Sorry, what's K2?
What about the people he was with who evidently didnt check too close on his health and then plundered his equipment.
Why would they take his golves and sleeping bag?
K2 is one of the tallest mountains in the world and in the same region as Everest.
I have read that there are many other mountains more challenging than Everest. And if I'm not mistaken, K2 is one of them.
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