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.
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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 ...
Yes! And the supplemental material includes a documentary that they shot when the entire crew and all three principals went back to the mountain for shooting. Joe, the guy who fell, talks about how he's come to peace with the whole thing, but he starts to get weirded out by being there. Simon, the guy who cut the rope, keeps denying that any of it effected him--this was just one climb of many, etc.--but it's clear that he's not real happy about being known forever as, well, "The Guy Who Cut the Rope." It's a fascinating documentary and basically stands as the next 45 minutes or so of the original movie.
The other thing I didn't realize was that Joe played himself in some of the long shots of crawling off that glacier and through that moraine. Being forced (or at least contractually obliged) to repeat that is at least part of why Joe stops being so happy to be back.
Dispatch 54 May 24, 2006
Dave Back at Base After Seventh Summit
Hey GreatOutdoors.com, this is Dave Hahn back down at Base Camp. I got back this morning after about 75 or 80 hours after I left base camp, a whirlwind tour, got up to the top yesterday morning at 4:20, something like that, just before sunlight. I've never seen such good conditions up there for climbing. Being a little bit behind the main push of climbers there was actually a pretty well packed trail, the ropes were good, me and Danuru made really good use of it, and had a great morning for climbing, a little breezy on top since the sun wasn't out, little cold, not the kind of day you'd want to hang around up there but exciting to be there and certainly exciting to have gotten down to Advance Base Camp and be able to get good rest and get good food and lot of water and this morning down very carefully to the icefall I clipped every rope I could and was careful as anything on every single ladder. And its really great to be down at Base Camp, things are very comfortable and I'm very happy and very relieved to be down here. And I'll let you know as things keep going here.
I agree. As far as I'm concerned (and I've signed the appropriate documents), they will use the usable organs and what's left goes to science. And torch anything unusable and spread the ashes over the Black Hills.
Here's an obscure one from ~25 years ago: 'The Man Who Skied Down Everest'. I've also done the trek to Mt. Everest base camp 10 years ago as a 14 day hike from Luklha. I climberd Gokyo-Ri at 17,500' at that time.
Six months after the trip I just described in the Sierras (#432) I had the chance to go to Africa.......See my #79:
"....On Kilmanjaro last year (I'm 51 years old), at 18,700 feet, without oxygen, I decided to turn back within an hour of the summit (19,300') due to the fact that I was losing conciousness and falling down from time to time. I'm here.......the dead climber on Everest is not....."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1636848/posts?page=79#79
....and #151:
"....I wish I paid for another day (7days/6nights instead of 6days/5nights) to get fully acclimitized at the Summit-camp at 15,500' and I'm sure I could have done the whole thing. Oh well...."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1636848/posts?page=151#151
My acclimitization had worn off.
"What happened to "judge not, so you shall not be judged likewise?"
Were they judging his sins too?
Look, the minute they came upon this guy, their little recreational field trip should have ended. Whether or not the guy would have made it is immaterial--we never know now, because he was left up there to die. So you're also suggesting that people brought into an emergency room should not be medically treated "because he probably won't make it anyway" all based on the assumption of condition?
Everyone of those SOBs are murderers.
Donner Pass. Been there years ago.
Lungs are very light, and some call them "lights" when cooking them.
All I know is he made the summit and didn't come down that night. He went up alone.
" Who passed him the previous day?
I don't know. He may have been the last one to head down. It's not given in any story so far.
" What was his backup plan?
He had none.
"Where were the guys in his group?
Apparently no one from his camp knew he was up there, or realized he didn't come back. The story is only coming out, because the Inlis group is telling it. They are with a different outfitter. If the cheap outfitter group knew he was missing, they ignored it.
" Why didn't he carry enough Os?"
He figured 2 was enough.
Googled it right after your post correcting me. I'm going to have to get a copy because it was a fascinating documentary, and the footage of the crevasse (sorry about my crevice blunder) was really effective and powerful. Simpson's (he was the guy that was left, right?) climb down that mountain is the stuff of legends, only it's true. I wouldn't want to be the 'rope cutter' that's for sure. But I have to say that I really didn't judge the guy too harshly myself when I first saw the piece because it didn't seem he had much of a choice. I don't see how he could have helped Simpson, really, and if he hadn't cut the rope he might have caused the both of them to die. What do you think his chances of saving the both of them would have been should he have stuck around?
Eight dead alone this year and they don't remove the bodies! Pretty soon its going to look like Stalingrad, just minus the German helmets laying around.
Don't know if you're serious or not about the lung reference, but I thought lights were eyes?
Evidentally! I cannot believe how callous this guys statement was.
Once Simon lowered Joe off that precipice, there was no other choice. He couldn't pull Joe up. Joe couldn't pull himself up. There was nothing solid to anchor Joe to, and Simon's snow seat kept breaking down in the soft powder, jerking him toward the precipice. Had Simon been able to hold on to Joe through the night, he still would have been hard-pressed to get him over to the place where he was able to come down the next morning.
You could also probably make a case that spending the night in the relatively sheltered crevasse was better for Joe than spending it dangling out in the wind and snow.
Some people will do anything to get to the top - look at politicians.
I'm serious. I've heard them called that many times.
When I was growing, I was a butcher, and old black people would buy "liver and lights," which consisted of a pig's liver, lungs, and a few other attached pieces. They called the lungs "lights" because they are so light. They have a much, much lower density than liver.
I've never heard eyes called "lights," but they could be in some subcultures.
I've been very clear in saying I think they had a duty to stop and stay with him, even if they couldn't save him.
But I'm equally clear that it's a moral failure, not murder. They didn't kill him. There's no reason to believe they could have saved him. Their failure was moral, not legal, and it wasn't murder, but lack of compassion.
Where there's life, there's hope. These people were too absorbed in their own little self interests to be concerned with the life of another. When they walked away from this guy--they murdered him. It doesn't matter if the guy would have died anyway, who will know this now?
The fact is, they willfully walked away from another human in dire need. This guy might as well have been in a concentration camp--no reason to risk my neck trying to save him, he's dead anyway.
Interesting.
The decision to leave someone usually has to do with the fact that rescue is impossible. If you try to save one, many others will die. Everyone who climbs knows this going into it.
I agree. One last question though. IIRC, when Simon made it to Camp he wasn't alone, there were one or two other people there. I don't remember anyone trying to organize a rescue effort for Joe. Is that correct, or did they but were impeded by weather? Also, wasn't mention made by these climbers that they prided themselves on climbing with minimal gear, and would more gear have made any difference?
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