Yep....here's a closer picture:
Keep in mind it is a 14,000 ft. drop on the right side.
But a much more managable 9,000 ft. to the left. :o)
Posted on 05/23/2006 8:42:02 AM PDT by Paddlefish
Mark Inglis, an amputee who conquered Mount Everest on artificial legs last week, yesterday defended his party's decision to carry on to the summit despite coming across a dying climber. As his team climbed through the "death zone," the area above 26,000 feet where the body begins to shut down, they passed David Sharp, 34, a stricken British climber who later died. His body remained on the mountain.
Mr. Inglis, 47, a New Zealander, said: "At 28,000 feet it's hard to stay alive yourself. He was in a very poor condition, near death. We talked about [what to do for him] for quite a lot at the time and it was a very hard decision. "About 40 people passed him that day, and no one else helped him apart from our expedition. Our Sherpas (guides) gave him oxygen. He wasn't a member of our expedition, he was a member of another, far less professional one." Mr. Sharp was among eight persons who have died on Everest this year, including another member of his group, a Brazilian. Dewa Sherpa, a manager at Asian Trekking, the Katmandu company that outfitted Mr. Sharp before his climb, said he had not taken enough oxygen and had no Sherpa guide.
*********
The company charges $6,000 to provide services as far as base camp -- far less than the $35,000 or more cost of guided trips to the summit. Other mountaineers have criticized the commercialism of climbing the 29,035-foot peak, with guides charging huge sums to climbers with minimal experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Wow. You are a modest one.
Great pics. Is that distant rockface on the second pic (where the summit snow ends) in 208 the "Hilary Step"?
That's right. Some folks want to engage in these activities w/o being bothered. They want to make their own decisions and don't want, or appreciate any interference. This is about taking on considerable risk on one's own. You are not welcome to the party, not even to get your foot in the door.
"libertarians on crack (which I assume most want the right to smoke as well)."
Whatever.
I think... the 2nd ladder was put up there by IMG's sherpas during the 1st Mallory & Irvine expedition. I think... The other one was just getting nasty if I remember correctly.
I don't know anything about mtn. climbing, but if saw/ran across someone drowning while I'm fishing I'd sure as heck help him/her. It's called morals.
No Thanks. I'll stick to my Dodge Caravan.
I don't go to gay bars either. Have fun.
God bless ya preacher, you're a real sport.
Oh, and you were being the shining example of civility?
One of them was not the Good Samaritan.
Excellent illustration for that passage some day in the future.
Jesus had it right.
These climbers, including the dead man, voluntarily took on a wild and fully appreciated risk of death. I just can't see the dying man faulting them for their decision. Applying the Golden Rule in these circumstances he likely would have made the same decision if the roles had been reversed. This is the kind of person that craves combat, driving very fast in powerful cars, tackling Class V rapids, running with enraged bulls, and tracking wounded cape buffalo in thorn thickets so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your face.
Hemingway wrote about such people. He would say your pity is foolish, wasted, your compassion misplaced. He would say this man died bearing no malice for the men who stepped over his body on their way to the top and possibly their own deaths.
I'm not saying you have to agree. I'm just saying these men would likely not understand why you are so uptight about it.
Hell, if your going to climb Everest by using ladders, placed by someone else no less, why not just build an escalator to the top and call it even?
On a more serious note, I wonder what the relative sense of accomplishment would be for, the individual who decided to stop and wait for their comrades to return from the summit so as to offer comfort to the dying man, as compared with those who reached the top of Everest?
I wonder whom the man's family would view as the greater adventurer?
I wonder whom I would be proud to call my friend?
Your comments are wise and well founded. But for me, the only question is, could I live with myself if I chose to get to the top of a mountain over the possibility that I could save another human.
Different guys. Inglis lost his legs from frostbite after getting stuck in a snow cave on a New Zealand mountain for two weeks. The boulder guy was named Warren MacDonald.
Ping for a great discussion thread.
If they had helped him, then they would not have been able to reach the summit themselves. That's the bottom line. It was for their own glory that they left this man to die alone.
"Here. have some oxygen. Have a nice death."
It IS a tough moral question.
To get to the top of Everest requires that a lot of things fall into place. You must go during one of the two times a year that the Jet Stream moves off the peak. (It's THAT high!)
Most often that's April to late May, before the monsoons move in.
Your group must be able to move together up to the staging area and then hope that THAT next day is clear for the assault. Not to mention the expense, acclimatization, the training, the permits and getting to the other side of the world. Most people who try never get to the assault stage and, even then, never get the shot and must climb down....never to get the chance again. One of the major reasons for the "Into Thin Air" 1996 disaster, is that a mailman who had been turned back yards from the summit the previous year was in the exact same predicament in 1996 and the leader, Hall, ignored his own turn around time to try and get this man his summit.
They both died.
So with that ultimate and solid real goal in sight, and knowing that you can do no more than offer a few minutes comfort, the decision has got to be tougher than unraveling the Gordian Knot.
Yep....here's a closer picture:
Keep in mind it is a 14,000 ft. drop on the right side.
But a much more managable 9,000 ft. to the left. :o)
Most members of a professionally trained Mountain Rescue Team would have had a VERY hard time getting the man off the highest mountain in the world without using rescue gear.
But you expect A MAN WITH NO LEGS, no training and limited rescue gear to pull a frozen near-dead body THREE miles down a 30 degree ice slope?
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